


i need a hero

by jokheiz



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Clubbing, Comic Book Violence, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mild Angst, Minor renmin, Superheroes, a lot of swearing, a whole lotta big dumb energy, hyuckheibestfriends4lyfe, minor johnkun, minor xiaodery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:01:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23166673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jokheiz/pseuds/jokheiz
Summary: "Yukhei makes me feel small. I like it.”Yukhei, the poor soul who just cannot get a break, Donghyuck thinks, seems to glitch completely, wheezing and freezing up so hard at the same time he strains a muscle in his leg.“You okay?” Jeno looks over, completely unaware that he will be Yukhei’s ultimate undoing. Donghyuck pities Yukhei only for a second until he’s reminded that Mark is next to him (because he shifts on the couch and their knees knock together) and he suddenly wants to curl into a ball and scream at the excitement that vibrates through his veins. (ALL THEY DID WAS TOUCH KNEES—DONGHYUCK IS SO FUCKED!)(aka being college boys by day, superheroes by night and lovestruck idiots 24/7 is a fucking disaster, man.)
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Lee Jeno/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 83
Kudos: 578
Collections: 99' ft 00' fic fest





	i need a hero

**Author's Note:**

> #FT121
> 
> to the prompter: i am so sorry
> 
> i took your prompt and it ran the fuck away from me and i managed to dump all of my dumb energy into it and oh my god they're so dumb in this THEYRE SO DUMB IN THIS but i love them so so much so i hope you do too! there's a lot less romance in this than I intended but as i said... it kind of just ran away from me...
> 
> title is taken from bonnie tyler's holding out for a hero!
> 
> (this is also only slightly read over im sorry in advance for any typos)

“You have the shit, right?”

“Of course! No way I’m forgetting this,” Yukhei holds up the mp3 player. “Last time we did this without it was so…”

“Boring?” Donghyuck’s holding the door to their dorm room open, waiting for Yukhei to make sure they have everything. Yukhei tosses the mp3 player to him and Donghyuck shoves it into his pocket.

“Yeah! Who knew fucking up some bad dudes would be boring without music.”

“There’s nothing like Bonnie Tyler to get you into the mood.”

“Oh god,” The earpieces they each have tucked into their ears sighs. “You guys aren’t talking about it in the middle of your dorm right? How many times have I told you not to talk about this in the middle of your dorm?”

“Sorry Si—” 

“Don’t _respond_ to me!” Sicheng hisses on the other line. “And god, use the codenames, please.”

They’re shuffling down the stairs from the third floor of their dorm to get to the first. “Shouldn’t we not use codenames until we get out of the dorm though? Otherwise it’s like…super obvious if I start calling Hyuck as Haechan when we’re still here.”

Donghyuck waves his finger at Yukhei because he has a really good point, and Yukhei raises his brows and nods, because isn’t Sicheng—Winwin?—supposed to be the really smart one here?

There’s a silence in their ears, then finally, a sigh. “I could’ve been dispatched to anyone else.”

“But you’re stuck with us!” Donghyuck says cheerfully because really, Sicheng’s saved their asses just by being the one on the other end of their earpieces more than once.

“Just… I’ve sent the location to you. Hendery and Renjun will meet you there.”

“Got’chu,” Donghyuck climbs onto Yukhei’s back once they’re out of the dorms and a good distance away from campus. Yukhei’s the one with heightened speed and strength so it only makes sense he’s the one who’s gonna get them both there on time. Donghyuck just makes sure he doesn’t hurt himself in the process. He fishes out the mp3 player from his pocket. “Hype song, _Lucas?”_

“Eye of the Tiger, _Haechan_.”

There’s another frustrated sigh that comes from their earpieces. “Masks on first—masks on please.”

  
“That’s our routine for most nights, when we’re not studying for exams or midterms or doing assignments, of course. We’re good boys.” Donghyuck puts his hand to his chest and sighs, rather dramatically. “The life of uni students who also happen to be superheroes—it’s hard.

For one, we don’t get to be superheroes all the time. We’re under strict regulations to have a normal life—especially during the day—and we can only come out at night. Yukhei and I only agreed to this because Johnny and Kun made us—and they’re like, the coolest superhero team ever. Like, superhero goals, you know? Except we can’t ever get there because Yukhei and I aren’t a couple like they are—but we’re best friends, so it’s close enough. 

Anyways, we’re under this company—you may or may not of heard of—called SMT. They train people like us into the crime-fighting badasses we are today. But we weren’t always like this, so let me tell you my origin story.”

Yukhei snorts in the middle of Donghyuck’s monologue. Donghyuck glares at him and continues.

“Anyways—origin story—it’s actually not that special, sometimes you’re just born with this shit. My parents realized one day that I’d surrounded myself with this big ass burning orange shield and they couldn’t get to me, so they contacted SMT. Now people call me ‘the Glowing Sun’ or whatever, but my codename is Haechan. Yukhei’s is Lucas, but you’ve probably heard him being called ‘the Raging Wolf’—I know, they really gotta come up with better shit—but he was… bad things happened to him when he was younger. SMT found him and we met when we were like, what, five? Six? Best friends. Always been best friends, that’s it.”

Donghyuck raises his shoulders at Yukhei, silently asking for his opinion.

Yukhei stares at him. “So… where’s the part where you ask Mark out?”

Donghyuck sighs dejectedly, rubbing a hand over his face. “It’s a work in progress.”

Yukhei shrugs, curling up his giant body into the bean bag chair they have in the middle of their dorm room. “It’s better than what I’ve got for Jeno.”

Donghyuck’s tucked into his own bed. “Did I emphasize the best friend part enough? I swear to god, they think we’re dating.”

“Probably because we’re always together and then we disappear together in the middle of the night?”

“Probably.”

There’s a hiss of static that comes from their earpieces, both tossed onto their desks at the moment. Sicheng’s voice fills the room. “Y’all done moping? I’ve got an assignment for you.”

“You wanna run that by my professors first? I’ve got shit due tonight, Sicheng,” Donghyuck curls tighter into a ball in his bed because he does have an assignment due and yeah, maybe he’d been putting it off by thinking of how he would ask Mark out, but he also wasn’t quite in the mood for going out tonight (and not in the fun college student way).

“Shit you should’ve had done already.” There’s a sigh. “I’ll get them to dispatch it to someone else. They’ve been calling on you two too much lately.”

“Awwe, Sichengie,” Yukhei pouts. “You really _do_ care about us!”

“Do your assignments kids or I won’t let them give you any of the exciting jobs.”

“Fine.” Donghyuck glowers at the earpieces until the hiss of static quiets. He sighs himself and looks over at Yukhei. “Library?”

Yukhei nods. “Yeah. We’re not getting any shit done if we stay here.”

Don’t get either of them wrong, Donghyuck would totally rather be beating some dude’s face in or doing recon shit because the Faceless have been getting wild lately, but he’s still healing from last night’s excursion and even though Yukhei hasn’t said anything, Donghyuck knows his back has been hurting too, despite his super fast healing. Maybe it’s from both the weight of school assignments and trying to save the city from hooded freaks who hurt people. Donghyuck feels like school crushes him more than the metal boot of any of the Faceless could. At least his shields defend against that. They can’t block out any of his homework, though.

“Alright wolf-boy, let’s go.”

It’s already late when they get to the library so there’s not many students still there—most having retreated back to their dorms already which means it should be easy to find a spot for Donghyuck and Yukhei to spread their papers around. Only, these two are picky and they have their unassigned favourite spot, which means they immediately head to the fifth floor of the library and both deflate when they see their couch lounge spot taken—only to stiffen with nerves when they both realize who’s taken it.

“Hey,” Mark Lee, ancient civ major and also a guy who looks way too good in his round reading glasses and quarter zip sweater, briefly looks up from the couch and makes eye contact with Donghyuck, who suddenly wants to be outside on whatever job it was that Sicheng was going to assign him, rather than here—where he knows he’ll make a damn fool of himself. “Here to study?”

There’s a snort from the opposite couch and Donghyuck feels Yukhei tense up even more beside him. “What else would they be in the library for, Mark?” The other Lee—Jeno, world history major—responds. Jeno, who Yukhei has once described in very vivid detail to Donghyuck the exact process the angels took to carve his face from marble and fill it with happiness and sunshine, has his own quarter zip sweater _unzipped,_ showing off his chest as he shifts to look up at the two.

“There’s tons of shit to be in the library for! You were sleeping like, an hour ago.” Mark retorts.

Donghyuck speaks only because he knows Yukhei is physically unable to right now. “Are you guys trying to scare us out of our unassigned totally assigned library spot again? So not cool.”

Mark chuckles and Donghyuck practically preens. “You’re welcome to join us.”

There’s nothing scarier, Donghyuck decides, than sitting beside a guy you’ve been crushing on for like, a year already in complete silence because you’re all supposed to be studying. Donghyuck has written approximately six words in the last forty-five minutes for his assignment because he’s too nervous to do anything else but make sure Mark isn’t looking at him through his peripheral.

Donghyuck’s phone chimes so he pulls it out of his pocket and checks his messages.

 **Yukhei:** I want to die  
**Donghyuck:** same  
**Donghyuck:** we should’ve taken that damn assignment  
**Yukhei:** hyuck he smells so good  
**Yukhei:** like his cologne is good his shampoo is good BUT HIS NATURAL BODY SCENT UNDERNEATH THAT IS SO GOOD HYUCK IM GONNA DIEEEEEE AND HIS KNEE IS TOUCHING MINE I CANT DO THIS  
**Donghyuck:** ur nose powers amaze me wolf boy  
**Donghyuck:** growl at him and he’ll move  
**Yukhei:** IM NOT GONNA GROWL AT HIM   
**Donghyuck:** what does mark smell like  
**Yukhei:** laundry  
**Donghyuck:** no seriously  
**Yukhei:** yeah  
**Yukhei:** anyways jeno—

  
Donghyuck sighs, deciding to shove his phone back into his pocket to not read Yukhei’s message and willing some of the tension out of his body. He beats up bad guys for a living, for fuck’s sake, he can handle this. “You guys really sucked all the big brain energy out of this spot, huh? I can’t write shit right now.” Then, for comedic effect, his stomach growls.

Mark perks up and chuckles. “You too hungry?”

“I am adequately hungry, thank you.” Donghyuck raises his hand in defense, prepared to shelve the topic away when his stomach grumbles again. Fuck having to eat a lot—having powers took up a lot of fucking energy, okay?

“Let’s order,” Jeno suggests, pulling out his phone. “I’ve got the shawarma place nearby on speed dial.”

“Who the fuck uses speed dial? There’s apps for that shit.” Mark grunts.

“It’s a fucking figure of speech Mark,” Jeno bites back with a sneer then in a second, beams at Donghyuck then at Yukhei. The change has Donghyuck reeling. “So you guys down for shawarma?”

“I’m down. Just get me one of those assorted dinner platters—the one with all the sides.” Donghyuck replies. 

“ _Fuuuck_ , that sounds good,” The way Mark drags out his words has Donghyuck on edge as if a finger was slowly dragging down his spine and giving him goosebumps. “Get me one of those too.” Donghyuck disguises his shiver with a cough. Fuck, he’s weak.

Jeno grins at them and turns to Yukhei, who’s just been staring at Jeno’s profile the entire time. 

“Uh, Yukhei?”

“Huh? Oh—I’ll uh, I’ll have two of whatever Hyuck’s having.”

“Two?” Jeno frowns. “You want _two_ dinner platters? Bro, that’s a lot.”

Yukhei laughs and only Donghyuck can detect the hesitance in it. Yukhei’s always had to eat a lot to keep himself sustained, even more so than Donghyuck. Yukhei’s never really cared though, so maybe it’s the term, ‘bro’ that Jeno used that’s throwing him off. “Yeah, two please.”

Jeno looks Yukhei over from top to bottom and then taps on his phone. Yukhei flushes and Donghyuck watches him type nonsense into his phone that is undoubtedly a message for Donghyuck while Jeno speaks. “Is that the secret to growing tall? Lots of shawarma platters?”

“Aren’t you already slightly taller than average, Jeno?” Mark points out.

“Am I?” Jeno takes a moment from his phone to ponder this fact. Donghyuck has no idea what the average height of a dude their age is but he knows it’s not Yukhei’s height and he knows he himself has been the same damn height since he was sixteen and watched everyone else around him get taller, so thanks for that, puberty. 

Jeno continues, nonchalantly. “Yukhei makes me feel small. I like it.”

Yukhei, the poor soul who just cannot get a break, Donghyuck thinks, seems to glitch completely, wheezing and freezing up so hard at the same time he strains a muscle in his leg.

“You okay?” Jeno looks over, completely unaware that he will be Yukhei’s ultimate undoing. Donghyuck pities Yukhei only for a second until he’s reminded that Mark is next to him (because he shifts on the couch and their knees knock together) and he suddenly wants to curl into a ball and scream at the excitement that vibrates through his veins. (ALL THEY DID WAS TOUCH KNEES—DONGHYUCK IS SO FUCKED!)

“Mm’fine,” Yukhei coughs out, trying to relax himself. Donghyuck’s not actually too concerned about the muscle, because he knows it’ll be healed in an hour, tops. Still sucks in the moment though. 

“Okay,” Jeno shrugs and taps his phone excitedly. “I ordered! Time to stare at the map until it gets here!”

As expected, nothing gets done while they wait. Donghyuck writes one more word and ends up deleting four of the ones he’d already typed. He stares into the abyss that is the almost blank page in front of him until he’s startled by Jeno’s excited shout.

“Food’s here! Someone help me come get—”

Yukhei’s already hopping off the couch before Jeno’s finished speaking. Donghyuck rolls his eyes and watches them leave, not realizing the position that leaves him in.

Alone.

With Mark.

(So technically it isn’t alone, but you get the picture.)

“Is everything okay?” Mark looks at him as if he had a personal Donghyuck distress signal detector. Which like, he totally could have because Donghyuck has orange glowing shields that he can project out of his body so really, anything’s possible but that’s beside the point—only Yukhei has a Donghyuck distress detector and he ignores it any time it’s not life-threatening.

“Yeah, just—ah, this assignment,” Donghyuck scratches the back of his head, for lack of anything else better to do with his hands. Sometimes he plays with the shields, like a form of stress ball. He can’t just pull them out though because one, Mark doesn’t know he’s… _different_ and two, what if Mark thinks he’s a freak?

Donghyuck knows he’s not a freak, he’s a little… augmented than other humans yeah but he’s not a freak. Of course, not everyone has the same opinion as him, which sucks but that’s life, right? But Mark—if Mark thought that about him—Donghyuck doesn’t even want to think about how that would _crush_ him—how that would _destroy_ him—how it would— 

He doesn’t realize Mark’s leaning over until it’s too late. 

“Is that for our Roman Religion class?” Mark’s peering at Donghyuck’s laptop, so close to his fucking shoulder his chin could almost perch on it. “I could help you with that, if you want? I already finished mine.”

“Yeah,” Donghyuck breaths at first, then coughs to clear his throat when he realizes Mark didn’t hear him. “Yeah, that’d be tight, thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Mark settles himself right fucking next to Donghyuck, leg fully pressed to his, browsing his own laptop. (Has Donghyuck mentioned yet that he wants to scream? Cause he wants to scream like a fucking banshee) “Can’t believe you didn’t ask sooner, I’m literally your own personal ancient civ archive. Use me.”

Donghyuck can suddenly sympathize with Yukhei. He doesn’t pull a muscle though, he likes to think he’s a little more composed than that. However, he does lose the ability to stop breathing for a bit and has to remind himself how to do it again before he dies. “O-okay,” he manages to choke out.

Donghyuck barely notices when Jeno and Lucas get back with all the food because his mind is only on Mark’s proximity, how close he’s leaning and damn he smells like soft clean laundry and—oh fuck, that means Yukhei wasn’t joking. Whatever, Donghyuck happens to like the smell of laundry because you know what’s cool about laundry? It means your shit is clean and when it comes out of the dryer it’s all warm and comfy—now Donghyuck’s thinking about cuddling Mark on a rainy Sunday and doesn’t even notice when Mark calls his name out.

“Huh?” Donghyuck snaps out of it when a pen gets thrown at him and he catches it at the last second.

“Whoa,” Jeno (the culprit)’s eyes bulge. “Nice reflexes, dude!”

Donghyuck spares a glance at Yukhei, who’s eyeing him wearily (and looking slightly worried).

“Yeah, thanks,” he says, then finally turns his attention back to Mark, who’s holding a takeout container out to him.

“I was trying to give you your food but you blanked out hard. Here, before I drop it onto your laptop.” Mark takes Donghyuck’s laptop from his lap and sets it on the coffee table in front of them before handing over the food. Donghyuck’s only a little sad that all he smells is shawarma now and not clean laundry, but his stomach is also dying so he can live with it for now.

They take a break to eat, (Jeno and Mark watch in amazement as Yukhei _does_ gulf down the two platters by himself) then they get back to work. Donghyuck’s never wanted to stop doing homework in his life because all Mark is doing is paying attention to him and checking up on him while he writes his assignment. Though what doesn’t help is that Donghyuck keeps thinking about Mark at the same time so instead of writing about the god of war _Mars_ he writes _Mark_. Luckily, Mark finds it quite funny that Donghyuck is calling him a sacred roman god but Donghyuck still wants to die. One, from embarrassment and two, with Mark Lee’s laughter ringing in his ears.

Three AM is when they finally decide to call it quits. Donghyuck has his paper done, he’ll just need to look over it in the morning and he’s sure Yukhei only got half of what he needed to get done, since he was busy staring at Jeno most of the time, then pretending not to be staring when he got caught. 

They walk back towards the dorms together, Mark and Jeno both having leftover shawarma in arms until it’s time to part ways at different buildings. Jeno ends up giving his leftovers to Yukhei (who looks like he might burst into squeals if Donghyuck doesn’t get him to their dorm room ASAP) while Mark just nods to Donghyuck with a smile before they say goodnight and go to their own dorm. Donghyuck feels like he’s won and lost all at the same time. He knows he won’t be able to share any of the shawarma with Yukhei, because Yukhei’s gonna—oh he’s already eaten it all. See? Wolf boy needs more grub than Donghyuck does, but Donghyuck does need more than the average human. He’ll eat in the morning.

Outside their dorm room, Yukhei stills and Donghyuck immediately senses something is wrong. Cautiously, he opens the door and they both stand in the entrance, dumbfounded to find Sicheng sitting on their bean bag, typing away at his phone, long leg crossed over the other.

“Uh—” Yukhei starts and Sicheng’s head raises to acknowledge their presence.

“Hey,” he nods then goes back to typing on his phone. “I see you didn’t take your earpieces with you. We’re going to headquarters.”

“You said we were off for the night!” Donghyuck defends themselves, because really, work berating you for not answering your phone when you’re off? Common, but still unacceptable! To be fair, their job isn’t a normal job.

Sicheng stands up, all tall and slim wearing a nice suit Donghyuck isn’t convinced he actually works in. “We’re never off the clock when there’s an emergency, come on.” He pushes past them through the doorway and Donghyuck and Yukhei only gape at him for a moment before trailing after.

“How did he even get into our room? We locked the door, right?” Yukhei asks.

“The door lock is automatic,” Donghyuck shrugs. His head is already starting to hurt. He just wants to sleep.

  
Donghyuck and Yukhei are familiar with the sleek glass walls of the conference room at SMT by this point. They each slouch into a chair and wish they were anywhere but here.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” Ten clears his throat and Donghyuck notices he’s also wearing a sleek suit like Sicheng even though it’s much too late in the night—or early in the morning?—to be wearing that. Anyways, Ten’s worked at SMT since Donghyuck was a teen, though Donghyuck wouldn’t really be able to describe to you what he did at the company. He’s not actually too sure? He thinks he’s a director of some sort—he’s not _in charge_ in charge but he’s definitely some sort of important. Donghyuck doesn’t think he’s actually ever met whoever’s in charge. Huh. That’s a little weird—sorry, he’s getting a little distracted. Ten clears his throat again and Donghyuck’s head snaps up to a screen in front of them that shows the profile of two fellow supers, Hendery and Renjun.

“Hendery and Renjun are missing.”

That certainly gets their attention. Yukhei sits up straight, eyes wide. “My Huangs?! What happened to my fellow Huangs?!”

“I thought your name was Wong?” Ten asks instead.

“Depends on the translation, really, anyways—continue,”

“Right,” Ten turns back to the screen and information begins to pop up. “They were sent on a mission three days ago and we lost contact—”

“Three days?!” Yukhei gasps and stands up. Donghyuck holds onto Yukhei’s wrist but doesn’t try to pull him back down. “My Huangs have been missing for _three days?!”_

“We believe they’ve been captured by the Faceless. Their last recorded contact was with someone we believe to also have some sort of power. We’ve nicknamed him the _Sonic Scream_ for now—we’d play back the audio but it literally shattered the earpiece on our side.”

“Okay first of all,” Donghyuck finally tugs Yukhei down back into his seat. “You guys need to work on better nicknames, I swear to god. Second, since when did the Faceless have supers among them? I thought they were just anarchists.”

“Supers can be anarchists.” Sicheng points out.

“I thought they were just people who turned to the life of crime because the system was against them?” Yukhei asks.

Donghyuck frowns. “I think that’s the same thing. Hey wait, why do they call themselves the Faceless anyway?”

“Because they cover their faces. We used to call them The Hooded but they rebranded themselves.” Sicheng informs them and both Donghyuck and Yukhei gasp.

“We can do that?!” Donghyuck exclaims while Yukhei closes his eyes, puts his hands up and says. “Wait, wait, I need to think of a new name, something better than _the Raging Wolf_ , fuck—”

“I can’t believe you fuckers aren’t even listening to me,” Ten sighs and points forcefully at the screen. It would’ve been more satisfying if the screen wasn’t a hologram and he could actually hit something but Donghyuck’s just glad he hasn’t lashed out at them just yet. “I said our dear Huangs are _missing_ , there’s a _new,_ possibly _deadly_ super on the side of the Faceless, and we need you two to get them out.”

That quiets them down. “Why us?” Yukhei opens his eyes again, shoulders drooping. Donghyuck feels the exact same way, tired. “If they’re in a lot of danger wouldn’t Johnny and Kun be a better team for this?”

“They’re away on another mission right now, we need you two.”

“I could give you a list of other supers also perfectly capable of doing this. Oh, wait, I already did.” Sicheng mutters and Ten shoots him a look that says they’ve argued a lot about this. Donghyuck is kind of warmed? Sicheng actually _does_ care about them.

Ten sighs. “We don’t know what we’re heading into with this one. All we have is a possible location, a possible threat and a possible solution that Donghyuck’s shields can protect them against Sonic Scream.”

Which meant that Donghyuck and Yukhei were the only two people able to do this because never in a million years would they let each other be put into a different team. Working as teams together of course—they’d worked plenty of times with Renjun and Hendery but never one on one. 

Ten sighs again. “Get some rest. We’re gonna see if we can pinpoint an accurate location, debrief and then send you guys out as soon as possible, okay?”

Yukhei yawns and Donghyuck nods that they’ve understood—though he doesn’t feel too great about it. He still just wants to sleep but now that’s also coupled with the worry and fear that their friends and fellow supers are missing. Despite that, when Ten and Sicheng dismiss them and they drag their feet to the room they usually stay in when they have missions like this, Donghyuck falls asleep the moment his head hits the pillow.

  
**Donghyuck:** maaaaaaarrrkkkk  
**Donghyuck:** I have a huge favour to ask TTT  
**Mark:** oh my gad  
**Mark:** u need me to submit ur paper for u?  
**Donghyuck:** psychic  
**Donghyuck** : amazing  
**Donghyuck:** … pls? I cant make it to class TT  
**Mark:** ya send it over I gotchu  
**Donghyuck:** BLESS  
**Mark** : lol I’ll b lonely without u in class :(

  
Donghyuck clutches his phone to his chest and stares blankly up at the ceiling. He takes a deep breath before kicking his feet out violently on the mattress he’s lying on.

“You texting Mark?” Yukhei asks a bed over, rolling onto his side to face Donghyuck, who just nods solemnly, overwhelmed.

“Can you ask him how Jeno is?”

“ _You_ ask Jeno how Jeno is. This is my moment, fuck.”

Donghyuck ignores Yukhei’s muttering and goes back to his phone, cheeks dusted a bright pink.

  
**Donghyuck:** mark lee r u trying to guilt me  
**Mark:** whaaaat nooooo  
**Mark** : lol its ok feel better alright? Ill see u later

  
“I’ll see you later,” Donghyuck whispers to himself, hugging his phone to his chest once more and fully giving into the love struck idiot that he is.

The door to their room bangs open and both Donghyuck and Yukhei groan when the light shines into their eyes.

“Rise and shine,” Sicheng calls out, monotone, effectively ruining the supposed delightfulness of the expression. Donghyuck thinks the phrase should’ve died the second Kylie Jenner uttered it. “Go to the training yard before you eat.”

“Before?” Yukhei groans. “Why can’t we eat first?”

“Because, training first.” Sicheng says simply, keeping the door open when he leaves which is fucking annoying because then it forces them to get up if they want to shut it to get dressed. Donghyuck wishes he was back in he and Yukhei’s dorm. Also because then he’d be seeing Mark.

They do light training exercises, which is fine and easy because Donghyuck is too preoccupied thinking about Mark saying he’ll miss him in class to really concentrate on anything else. Why did Hendery and Renjun have to go and get themselves kidnapped? Donghyuck pulls out his phone to look at the texts again and sighs into a dumb, dreamy smile. He barely manages to dodge and shield Yukhei from the simulated hologram bullets being shot at them in the indoor training yard.

“What the fuck, Hyuck?” Yukhei is frowning at him, looking slightly annoyed.

“Sorry,” Donghyuck’s shoulders rise, feeling a bit sheepish as he shoves his phone back into his pocket. “Got distracted.”

Yukhei says nothing, just makes his way towards the door. Donghyuck grimaces because he probably should’ve been paying attention but it’s just so hard, man, the heart and mind wants what it wants—which is to be with Mark and not at SMT right now.

“Alright, go for breakfast.” Sicheng’s voice rings out, dismissing them. “We’ll come back to this later.”

**Mark** : handed ur paper in!!!!!!  
**Mark:** you owe me D:<  
**Donghyuck:** you weren’t complaining earlier???  
**Donghyuck:** you can’t change the terms and conditions after it’s done!!!  
**Mark:** like you’d read the t&c’s anyway lmao  
**Mark** : sue me  
**Donghyuck:** I will

Donghyuck hears a sigh come across from the table he’s sat at while they eat. Donghyuck looks up to see Yukhei pushing around the food on his plate with his fork, lips pushed out into a slight pout.

“Just text Jeno, Yukhei.”

“I can’t,” Yukhei whines.

“You can, dude. We’ve done scarier shit—remember when you got launched off that building in New York and I had to jump after you and we both had to hope the ground was something my shields could protect us from?”

Yukhei shakes his head at the memory because that shit was fucking terrifying. “I heard they still haven’t fixed the hole.”

Donghyuck shrugs. As long as they’re both alive! “Texting is so much easier than free falling like that, bro. Trust me. Face to face is what’s terrifying.”

Yukhei continues pushing his food around, not satisfied, reminding Donghyuck of a sad puppy. He offers Yukhei an extra breakfast sausage off his plate and Yukhei mumbles a thanks but doesn’t eat it.

**Mark** : for someone who’s supposed to be sick you sure aren’t resting a lot  
**Donghyuck** : what an accusation  
**Donghyuck:** who says I’m not???  
**Mark** : you keep texting me instead of like,, sleeping??  
**Donghyuck:** okay im not the one texting during a class they actually need for their degree  
**Mark:** touche

The idea that Mark is willingly texting Donghyuck during a class he actually likes (Donghyuck doesn’t mind the class, he only took it as an elective because he knew Mark would be in it, _ahem_ ) stays with him even while being briefed on Sonic Scream, who’s scream is apparently so fucking loud and powerful it shatters windows and disrupts equipment, which is how they managed to probably incapacitate Hendery and Renjun. They still don’t know what it is the Faceless want them for but if they have a super on their side now, maybe they want more? Or, they want SMT secrets or something. Either way, they have to get them back and Donghyuck knows this, knows this is important but he just can’t stop thinking about Mark.

“Everything’s clear?” Sicheng asks at the end of the meeting. He’s still wearing a suit and Donghyuck is still not convinced that’s what he wears when he’s on the other end of the line over their earpieces.

Donghyuck nods even though he was only half-listening and Sicheng stares at both of them, gaze intense.

“We’ll drop you off at the location tonight, at sundown. Be careful, okay?”

Donghyuck coos and Sicheng glowers at him. “Concern is such a good look for you, Sichengie. Makes your hair sleeker.”

“That’s not even—ugh.” Sicheng doesn’t even try to argue with him and shoos them off. “Go get some rest before then. Remember to eat again too.”

“Yes, Mom,” Donghyuck adds on the way out and Sicheng slams the door behind them as they leave, giggling.

They walk down the hallway towards the room they’re staying in. “Should we set a song for tonight?” Yukhei asks. Donghyuck pulls the MP3 player out of his pocket because he always has it on him, just in case.

“Sure—how you feelin’? God, I’m in such a Twice mood today. _Feel Special_?”

Yukhei frowns at him and it’s Donghyuck’s first hint that maybe something really _is_ off today between the two of them.

“ _Feel Special_? Yeah, I guess.” Clearly, Yukhei’s not feeling (special) the song, which is odd because they’ve always been in sync for choosing their mood music when doing super shit. 

“I mean we can do _What is Love_ too, you know.”

“Yeah, sure.” Yukhei just shrugs and Donghyuck blinks at him.

“Were you thinking of something else?”

Yukhei shrugs, again. “Yeah, thought this mission had a more of a _Pump It_ vibe, you know? To get us hyped for saving our friends.”

“Oh. Yeah, we can do that.”

“It’s fine, let’s just go with Twice.”

Donghyuck stares at Yukhei like he’s grown a second head when he flops into his bed and buries himself under the covers. They’ve never had to argue about their chosen hype song before. Donghyuck queues up _Pump It_ by _The Black Eyed Peas_ anyway so it’s ready to go when they are. Whatever’s happening it’ll coast over by the time the sun goes down, Donghyuck’s sure.

  
**Mark** : you feelin any better?  
**Mark** : hyuck?  
**Mark:** oh finally, u went to sleep lol  
**Mark:** sleep well!  
**Mark:** <3

  
"Why is it always at the docks? I swear to god, don't they know by now that hiding at a shipping dock is playing into bad guy stereotypes?"

"Maybe if you listened to the debrief, you wouldn't be surprised by this," Yukhei walks ahead and Donghyuck stares after him, dumbfounded. He gathers himself quickly and follows after quietly (they're supposed to be sneaking, after all).

Donghyuck crouches beside Yukhei behind a shipping container and waits for his partner to say if it's clear.

Instead of signaling—Yukhei moves to the next container without saying anything, leaving Donghyuck to stare at him, mouthing, _"'What the fuck?"_

"You're supposed to be a team," Sicheng's voice hisses in Donghyuck's ear, presumably Yukhei's as well. "Act like it."

Donghyuck can't see Yukhei's expression but he sees him waving his hand, finally signaling for him to follow. At least he listened to Sicheng, Donghyuck wouldn't know what to do otherwise. Man, he really should've been listening to the debrief but Mark... heehee, _Mark—_

There's a snap of fingers in Donghyuck's face that startles him out of his thoughts and Donghyuck blinks to see Yukhei glaring at him, which, he totally deserves. He just zoned out thinking about Mark in the middle of a fucking mission.

"Sorry," Donghyuck whispers. Yukhei only grunts before moving on.

The harbor is eerily quiet, with only the sound of the water hitting the docks keeping them company. Of course, Donghyuck can't hear as well as Yukhei can (and it doesn't seem like he's about to say anything to Donghyuck right now for whatever reason) so maybe they _are_ leading towards some bad goonies Donghyuck's can't hear.

He's proven wrong when Yukhei suddenly stands up, right underneath a light outside one of the buildings and exclaims, "There's no one fucking here!"

There's always someone.

In this case, there are many of them. Like, a whole swarm, like gross bugs or something—all appearing from shadows out of thin air. Donghyuck barely gets close enough to Yukhei to shield him from the first hit.

"Lucas, I thought it was _you_ who was listening to the debrief!" Sicheng hisses. "Fuck, just get out of there!"

"What about—" Donghyuck uses his shields to push the many hooded figures away, toppling the others. 

"They're not here—It's just Faceless." Yukhei replies and, like an idiot who's mad at Donghyuck for whatever reason, runs towards some goons to attack them—moving out of Donghyuck's range to protect him.

"Lucas!" Donghyuck shrieks but it's too late to run after him, Donghyuck's got his own swarm of bitches to beat up. Who the fuck thought two against, what—sixty plus? Who thought that was a good idea? (He could be exaggerating but that's what it feels like in the moment.)

The Faceless don't use guns (Thank god—though maybe if they wanted to be more efficient they should? Or maybe they don't actually want to kill anyone? Hm...), they attack with anything else they have, baseball bats, fists (once Donghyuck saw someone use ninja stars once— _that_ was cool), etc.

They surround Donghyuck in a circle and that's when he realizes they're purposely keeping him away from Yukhei, who—ah fuck, is he bleeding? Fuck, Donghyuck needs to get them out of there before that damn Sonic Scream arrives. He's pretty sure the shadow thing and being undetectable was the work of another super, which means the Faceless probably have more on their side. Donghyuck just knows he needs to be next to Yukhei if the screaming dude shows up, fuck.

Donghyuck surveys the area after knocking the Faceless around him back from advancing on him, and he notices someone standing on one of the shipping containers, just watching the fight below him. That means he's probably important—maybe he's the super in charge of the shadow trick—he must have information, so Donghyuck decides _'fuck it'_ and goes straight for him.

Maybe Donghyuck’s expecting the worst of the worst but he doesn’t expect for the dude to get completely knocked over when he pulses his shield at him. That was almost… too easy.

Donghyuck yanks the hooded figure up by the shoulder, bringing him to his knees and because he’s really too goddamn curious, grabs the hood and rips it off his head.

Donghyuck blinks down at the very human (and very attractive) face staring up at him. Maybe he should stop expecting things because clearly it goes the opposite way every time. The boy looks about his age with pink pale fluffy hair—and he smiles up at Donghyuck like they have some sort of inside joke.

“Not according to plan,” The guy’s voice is low and laced with sugar; if he wasn’t the bad guy in this situation maybe it wouldn’t be so offputting. “But I’ll take this.”

Donghyuck doesn’t know what the fuck is going on or what this guy’s talking about but the dude stands up so fucking quickly, hand shooting out and forcefully grabbing Donghyuck by the back of his neck, finger squeezing right underneath Donghyuck’s ears.

He’s too surprised to be afraid, too shocked to defend himself. To be fair, the guy isn’t hurting him really, just staring into his eyes so intensely—Donghyuck thinks they might be having a moment? Donghyuck doesn’t want a moment with some dude from the Faceless though, no matter how pretty he might be—he only wants moments with— _oh_ , oh, Donghyuck’s knees are getting wobbly, his body feels so light—

Donghyuck’s eyes roll to the back of his head and the boy lets go of him, letting him collapse onto the metal shipping container.

The last thing Donghyuck hears before he blacks out is Yukhei calling for him.

  
“I told you it was too big for just the two of them.”

“We didn’t have any other choice, Sicheng. You think I wanted to send them alone like that?”

“We had plenty of choices—one of them being not to fall into a fucking trap!”

“Hey,” A new voice adds in, one that takes Donghyuck a moment to place while he still has his eyes closed. It’s Taeyong, one of SMT’s doctors. “All the tests came back normal for the both of them—they’re going to be fine, they just need rest. Please fight in the hallway instead of over their beds, thank you.”

Once Donghyuck hears the muttering muted by the slam of a door, he blinks an eye open, wincing at the bright light that hits him. He squints until it’s enough for both his eyes to adjust and he looks around. Taeyong has left the room too, so it’s just Donghyuck—and lying next to him in another bed is Yukhei.

Donghyuck’s body is sore when he sits up—from falling onto that stupid fucking container, ugh. He gently gets off his bed and climbs into Yukhei’s.

“Hey,” Yukhei grunts as he’s awoken by Donghyuck’s body settling beside his. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Donghyuck chances a look at Yukhei, who doesn’t seem to be hurt—whatever was bleeding has healed already. “You?”

“Yeah,” Yukhei shifts so he’s pressed closer to Donghyuck. “I’m sorry.”

Donghyuck shakes his head. It’s his fault for not paying attention to the debrief in the first place. “No, I’m sorry. I was too busy being dumb and thinking about a boy instead of what mattered.”

“And I was jealous I didn’t get to think about a boy like that too—so I didn’t help you. I’m sorry.” Yukhei tries to one up him but Donghyuck won’t lose at that game. 

“No, I’m sorry.”

“No, I am—”

“Fuck you, I’m more sorry!”

“Impossible! No one’s sorrier than me!”

“Absolutely possible because I exist and I’m more sorry than you.”

“And I thought our apologies were weird.” The door to their room opens and in walks the two men both Donghyuck and Yukhei idolize the most in the entire world. It’s like they walked in with angel wings and halos or something when Donghyuck feels so relieved just to see them.

“Johnny! Kun!” Donghyuck exclaims, instantly brightening. Yukhei grins at them as they both sit up to greet their heroes—uh, fellow workmates. Co-workers.

“How was your mission? Good?” Donghyuck asks eagerly because he wants to hear every cool story they have, and trust him, every story they have is cool.

Johnny and Kun share a Look™ before Kun responds, “Good enough,” he sits on the small area at the end of the bed not covered by Donghyuck or Yukhei’s legs. “Now tell us about _your_ mission.”

Donghyuck falters, shoulders slumping. "Why are you asking? They probably told you already."

"They did, but," Johnny shrugs, coming up behind Kun and placing his hands on his partner's shoulders, looking down at Donghyuck and Yukhei with a reassuring smile. Very Dad-like, Donghyuck notes. "We want to hear it from you."

Yukhei takes a glance at Donghyuck before responding. "Neither of us was really into it, were we? Our heads just... weren't at the same place."

Donghyuck nods, agreeing. It doesn't help that they'd been taken on their day off at like, three A.M anyway. If Donghyuck didn't have Mark in his class he wouldn't have been able to submit his assignment either. 

"We should've been taking it more seriously—even if it turned out to be a trap, all we were trying to do was save Renjun and Hendery right? My little Huangs..." Yukhei's lips push into a pout and Kun pats his leg comfortingly.

"Distracted or not—it was still a trap. Don't feel bad because it couldn't have ended any other way, okay?"

Donghyuck sniffs. "This is a teaching moment, isn't it?"

"A life lesson, one might say!" Johnny grins all too happily which like—fine, Donghyuck's not against these kinds of moments—he'd rather get them from Johnny and Kun than from anyone else (Ten and Sicheng would've just glowered at them, as much as they care) it's just so damn cheesy. But he does suppose the only thing left is to learn from this and make sure to be paying attention to debriefing and training because next time they might not get off so easily. "Taeyong's prescribed you a ton of rest, so when you get back to your dorm, no homework for at least a day, okay?" 

" _Johnny_ ," Kun tsks and Johnny just fake-gasps at him.

"What! They can live not doing homework for one day!"

Kun rolls his eyes and pats Yukhei's leg again, then Donghyuck's. "If you guys need to talk to anyone about anything, you know you can talk to us, right?"

"Yeah," Yukhei nods, eyes drooping a little and slumping to lie back down on the bed. Donghyuck feels the same—so fucking tired. He closes his eyes as Yukhei mumbles, "Thanks, Dads."

Donghyuck's eyes shoot open and he looks at Yukhei, who takes a three-second delay to realize what he's said. Johnny and Kun both stare at him with bemused looks on their faces, Johnny's eyebrows raised high.

"Uh, I meant—"

"Get some more rest before leaving." Kun laughs, getting up and gently pushing Johnny towards the door. "We won't disturb you any longer."

When the door closes, Donghyuck stares at Yukhei who just shrinks in his spot. "I can't believe you said that out loud."

Yukhei groans. "Don't resuscitate me when I don't wake up from this nap."

"Our dads will be sad if you die though,"

Yukhei pushes Donghyuck weakly (otherwise he'd probably break Donghyuck's arm if he did it with any more strength) and laughs. "Shut up."

Donghyuck is staring off at a wall thinking about the upcoming Animal Crossing game and if he'll even have time to play it when someone slides into the seat next to him. Usually, that wouldn't disturb his very concentrated thoughts about Isabelle and her impact on pop culture but the smell of a certain brand of laundry detergent pulls him right out of it.

"Hey," Mark smiles with his tired but sparkly eyes underneath his glasses and his messy but perfect morning hair (It's _curly!!_ ) and fuck his voice is so low oh god, oh _god—_ "Glad to see you could make it. You feeling better?"

 _Yeah, now that you're beside me._ Thankfully Donghyuck's dumb words filter is stronger than Yukhei's so he doesn't say that but god he was _so_ close. "Yeah, sort of. Totally could've used another day to just, pretend school doesn't exist though." Except maybe he missed someone in one of his classes and instead of whining to Yukhei about it he decided to actually go to class this time and no, he does not regret it.

"Don't we all," Mark takes his laptop out from his bag and opens it. "I took notes for you from both the classes you missed—I'll e-mail them to you."

Donghyuck's heart leaps into the god damn sky even though he knows Mark didn't take two sets of notes, he's just e-mailing a copy of his own but it still fucking feels good to know Mark's thinking of him. Not a minute later Donghyuck's laptop pings (reminding him to lower the volume before he embarrasses himself when he inevitably opens up a youtube video to entertain himself in class) and he opens up the e-mail Mark sent him to a very personalized set of notes.

As in, Mark took notes, then went over them and explained them in Donghyuck terms. "Did you really research Skyrim lore just to try and explain this all to me?"

Mark shrugs as if it's not a big fucking deal. "It didn't take me very long."

"Oh my god, _nerd_."

Mark balks at him. "Says the nerd I had to translate Roman religion into a fictional video game religion for so he understands it!"

"You didn't _have_ to do that." Donghyuck points out, mainly because he really likes the idea that Mark really did all that for him. His skin feels all warm and tingly.

Mark's lips press together and Donghyuck swears he sees blush rise to his cheeks. He can't stare for long to actually check because professor Park is in front of the class calling for their attention to start but he swears on Sicheng's life he made Mark Lee blush.

"You're right, I didn't have to." Mark murmurs as class starts and Donghyuck wants to die (in the good way).

Class doesn't end soon enough but eventually it does—Mark and Donghyuck leave together and walk towards Donghyuck's next class he has in half an hour. God, he really wished he'd given himself more time to spend with Mark, who didn't have class for another two hours.

"Oh, by the way, did you get Yukhei sick too? Jeno said he hasn't seen him around lately." 

Donghyuck just wishes those two fuckers would text each other and not go through him and Mark but whatever. He also hates lying to Mark but the truth of _'we fucked up our superhero mission and had to recover for a bit'_ isn't something he can just say. "Yeah, he forgot which toothbrush was his or something. You know how it is."

The expression on Mark's face tells Donghyuck that he very much does _not_ know how it is. Donghyuck sends off a silent apology to Yukhei for throwing him under the bus like that but he couldn't think of anything else in time. He has a feeling Mark won't tell Jeno the added information as to how Yukhei got _'sick'_ anyway.

Mark clears his throat, shrugging what Donghyuck just said off his shoulders. "I mean, are you guys well enough to go out this weekend with us?"

Donghyuck almost trips over himself. "If I can drag myself to class I can go anywhere where you'll be."

_Oh god._

Mark's brows raise and the corner of his mouth lifts into a shy smile. He chuckles, scratches the back of his neck and is he going a little red again?? Donghyuck himself is burning from head to toe, so fucking embarrassed he said it like that. He could've just said _'Yeah, we're good!'_ No, he had to go all mushy romantic on him, fuck.

"Oh, well, uhm, Jeno and I just wanted to go to the club this Saturday and we wanted to know if you guys would come with us?" 

"Yeah, yeah, we'll be there." Donghyuck wants to swallow himself whole and disappear from the universe entirely.

"Cool, I'll uhm, I'll text you the details while you're in class, 'kay?"

"Yeah, yeah sure." Donghyuck has absolutely no intention of going to his next class anymore. "Don't distract me too much."

Mark laughs. "Wouldn't dream of it. See you later."

"See you," Donghyuck breathes when Mark's back is turned and he's too far away to hear how head-over-heels-dumb-in-love Donghyuck is for him. Donghyuck proceeds to walk the opposite way from his classroom and towards their dorm, slamming open the door to his room and scaring Yukhei so bad he jumps a foot off the ground from where he was sprawled across his bean bag chair.

"What the fuck," Yukhei exhales, pressing his hand to his heart.

"You didn't hear me coming?" Of all people to get scared, Donghyuck thinks, the dude with super hearing.

"I did, I just didn't think it was you," Yukhei sighs. "I was all in my feels thinking about Jeno, okay?"

"Still trying to text him?" 

Yukhei pushes his bottom lip out and nods, all sad and puppy-like. Donghyuck almost forgets why he even ditched class in the first place until he hears his phone ping.

"Oh my god," He points at Yukhei, who looks like a deer in headlights. "Oh my god!"

"What, oh my god what?"

"Mark and Jeno asked us to go clubbing this weekend!"

Yukhei's jaw falls to the floor (not literally but it certainly looks like it). "You're lying."

"I'm not," Donghyuck shoves his phone in Yukhei's face, showing off the text from Mark telling them when and where to meet up on Saturday. "I already said yes for the both of us."

"Oh my fucking god," Yukhei looks horrified and happy at the same time—like he's about to throw up but with a smile on his face. "Oh my fucking god."

"We're going clubbing with Mark and Jeno, genius history majors we've had dumb crushes on for a year, Yukhei."

"Don't say that or I'll really vomit."

"Don't get sick please—oh also uh, Jeno was wondering if I got you sick too so I told Mark you used my toothbrush."

"What the fuck, Hyuck."

"I panicked!"

  
Donghyuck's helped Yukhei adjust the fit on his shirt about six times already until he deems it perfect. It shows off his long torso so fucking well, Jeno's gonna drool when he sees Yukhei. Hopefully.

Yukhei doesn't seem as excited. Donghyuck nudges him with his shoulder to ask him what's up.

"I was thinking about Renjun and Hendery," Yukhei frowns. "Like, is it fair we're getting ready for a night out when they're still missing?"

"Johnny and Kun told us they were on it now, so we don't have to feel guilty." There was a whole speech about letting college kids be college kids and while Donghyuck loved being a super—what else was he supposed to do with fucking shields coming out of his body anyway?—he really liked the idea of being a college kid for at least one night. "We'll go out clubbing with them when they're back to make it up to them, okay?"

Yukhei only looks slightly convinced. Donghyuck takes the MP3 player out of his pocket and queues up a song for them to sing along with to get out all their nerves. Yukhei instantly perks up when he hears the first notes to _Mamma Mia_ and both he and Donghyuck break out into full song. Donghyuck uses the MP3 player as his pretend microphone and Yukhei uses a pen.

When the song's over and they're both smiling at each other, breathless, Donghyuck reaches over to squeeze Yukhei's arm. "Feeling better?"

Yukhei nods. "Yeah, let's go."

It's eerily similar to the way they get ready before a mission but Donghyuck thinks going to the club with Mark and Jeno is a million times scarier than beating up some of the Faceless. Donghyuck would willingly fight that weirdo pink-haired guy that just stared at him again with less nerves than he has now as they make their way to the club.

Donghuck's stomach twists unexpectedly and for a horrifying second he thinks he might be sick.

Yukhei, thankfully, is actually listening to his Donghyuck distress signal and throws one of his giant warm arms over Donghuck's shoulders. It's kinda like a safety blanket while they walk through campus to get to the club. "You still have the MP3 player, right?"

"Yeah, of course." Donghyuck pulls it out and Yukhei connects his earbuds into it, sticking one in Donghyuck's ear and the other in his own. Donghyuck waits patiently while Yukhei chooses a song and his worried frown turns upside down when he hears the first few notes of _Feel Special_ by Twice.

"Mamma Mia _and_ Twice tonight? Man, we're really going through it," Donghyuck laughs but admittedly, he does feel a lot better already. (How could he not? It's Twice!)

"Some nights you just need more than one hype song bro," Yukhei grins and DJs the rest of their walk up until they reach the club.

The last few notes of an Everglow song finishes up by the time they get there (Donghyuck is feeling Fired the Fuck Up™) and meet Mark and Jeno in line.

(Yukhei almost turns around and goes back to campus, muttering _'oh my god, he's so cute I can't do this'_ but Donghyuck catches him and then makes him untangle the earbud cord and wrap it around the MP3 player since he dropped it.)

"Is that an MP3 player?" Jeno asks as they join them in line.

Donghyuck pauses while putting it back in his pocket when Yukhei hands it to him. "Uh... Yeah."

Jeno stares at him. "... Why?"

Donghyuck feels himself start to go red in the face with Mark also looking at him curiously. "So the government can't track us."

Mark laughs, nudging Donghyuck in the shoulder like he said a funny joke. The worst part is he's being truthful—It's the only way they can bring music to their super missions 'cause they can't have their phones, so Donghyuck just brings it everywhere with him. Donghyuck laughs along with him weakly while Yukhei's mouth goes into a thin line, trying to smile.

"You know, being registered as a student in a public university kind of means you're still trackable, right?"

He knows Jeno is joking with him but damn, does he have to point that out?

"Let them be retro, Jeno, it's cool." 

Donghyuck wants to glow with the way Mark smiles at him.

"Oh, I wasn't saying it wasn't! I thought my dumb ass was missing a new trend again and I was trying to figure it out, like this Tik Tok stuff man," Jeno chuckles sheepishly and Donghyuck can practically feel Yukhei's insides turn to mush from beside him.

"Yukhei can teach you the renegade dance," Donghyuck plays it off nonchalantly though Yukhei looks at him in straight panic before controlling his face. Jeno's eyes widen excitedly though.

"Can you? Educate my ass please, Yukhei."

So Mark and Donghyuck watch Yukhei teach Jeno a Tik Tok dance in line for the club and Donghyuck wants to burst with pride at how much more comfortable Yukhei is getting around his crush. He almost forgets who he's standing beside when a hand presses on his back and Mark asks him if he has a Tik Tok account.

"No!" Donghyuck exclaims at first because it's embarrassing and Mark's hand is on his back and Donghyuck suddenly feels like he's on fire! He's fine!

When Mark raises a brow at him, Donghyuck immediately gives in.

"Okay, yeah, we do. Yukhei and I have a joint account..."

Mark, horrifyingly, pulls out his phone. "Can I have it?"

Donghyuck sees no other option (except running away forever but obviously he can't do that...) "Yeah, it's... _hyuckheibfs4lyfe_ with a y in life. Lyfe."

Mark chuckles (wedding bells ring in Donghyuck's head along with an alarm when he sees their Tik Tok page being pulled up). "You guys are really inseparable, huh?"

"For lyfe." Donghyuck shrugs weakly, trying to seem casual.

Thankfully, they get to the door in time for Mark to not go through their Tik Toks right in front of them (Donghyuck had no regrets making them but oh my god he does now) and when they get into the club, Mark and Jeno lead them to the bar, starting the night off with a shot of tequila.

It burns as it slides down Donghyuck's throat but it gives him enough of a buzz to head to the dance floor with Mark. He sends off a quick silent plea that Yukhei can hold his own with Jeno but he can hear his hyena laughter even over the pounding music so he thinks Yukhei's gonna be just fine.

Donghyuck on the other hand... He can feel Mark's body close to his as they squeeze their way through to the main dancefloor and he swears he has goosebumps even though he's not cold at all.

Thankfully, the club has a good DJ that decides to play a song from the Birds of Prey soundtrack and Donghyuck is too concentrated on spitting out every word of Doja Cat's rap in _Boss Bitch_ to really be worried about dancing with Mark Lee.

Of course, Donghyuck is over the fucking moon when he realizes that Mark too, knows all the words to _Boss Bitch_ and Donghyuck has never wanted to marry someone more in his life (well, more than he already did, anyway). Mark and Donghyuck excitedly recite the song verses to each other and dance at the same time. Donghyuck thinks his heart might explode it's beating so hard and yet he feels the most comfortable and in his element than he's ever had before. Maybe that shot really did help, even if it's gonna go through Donghyuck's system a lot faster than any regular college kid.

The DJ mixes in a new song, a slower, little more sexier club beat and Donghyuck momentarily blanks out when he feels Mark's hand on his waist, bringing him closer. (It was so he didn't back up into someone but when Mark moves to pull his hand away after, Donghyuck's instincts take over and he holds Mark's hand so it doesn't go anywhere. Mark smiles and Donghyuck wants to die.)

"You don't know the lyrics to this song too?" Mark leans into Donghyuck's ear because obviously Donghyuck is too shocked to comprehend anything that's happening around him. Donghyuck eventually recognizes the song by Jeremih and 50Cent and of course, he knows all the lyrics—all he does is listen to music and beat up bad dudes. Sometimes, he does homework.

Donghyuck retaliates to Mark's teasing by singing the lyrics and Mark's laughter sends an electric zap through his body, one that possesses him to put an arm around Mark's shoulder and bring them closer together. It's uh, totally so they don't bump into someone else! Ahem.

Mark adapts quickly and his other hand finds its way to Donghyuck's waist and Donghyuck is absolutely buzzing with excitement.

Mark leans in again. "Are you okay with this?"

They sway their hips in sync and Donghyuck has to resist the urge to be dumb and say ' _oh fuck yeah, bud_ ,' like the Canadian he isn't. Maybe Mark's energy was rubbing off on him. Literally. Donghyuck can feel Mark's hip brush against his and he's REALLY FUCKING ENJOYING IT AND HE KINDA REALLY WANTS TO DIE!

He just ends up nodding and maybe leaning himself closer into Mark's shoulder, mainly cause he doesn't know if he'll survive looking into Mark's eyes while slowly moving their hips to fucking _Down on Me._

"You look really good tonight," Mark's breath dances over Donghyuck's ear and makes him shiver. "Ah, not that you don't look good usually—tonight's just, wow—"

It sends a thrill through Donghyuck to know he makes Mark a little nervous at least. If only the history major knew how much Donghyuck liked him. 

(Newsflash... a lot. In case you hadn't gotten the hint yet.)

Maybe that's what possesses Donghyuck to say, "Thanks, you look hot in and out of your damn quarter zip," Then he unhooks his arm from around Mark's shoulder to turn himself around.

(Well. You can see where this is going, can't you?)

 _'WHAT AM I DOING'_ Donghyuck screams in his head. The song fades into a new one, still sexy and Donghyuck sways his ass against Mark's hips with the rhythm. He feels Mark's hands rest on his waist again and Mark hooks his chin over Donghyuck's shoulder, nose pressing into Donghyuck's neck.

"Aren't you full of surprises, Donghyuck Lee," Mark mutters loud enough for him to hear.

Donghyuck can't help but chuckle at that. If only Mark knew. "I've got a couple more up my sleeves."

"I'd like to see the rest someday."

When Donghyuck doesn't respond, Mark guides one of Donghyuck's hands to hook behind Mark's neck, holding onto his nape.

It was... more intimate than Donghyuck ever even imagined. Or dreamed. If Yukhei was paying attention, Donghyuck knows he'd be wolf-whistling at him, god fuck.

Donghyuck inhales sharply when he feels a pair of lips brush over his skin, not quite touching yet.

"Is this okay?" Mark asks and Donghyuck manages to mumble a coherent "Yes." God, consent is so sexy.

Mark presses his lips to Donghyuck's neck and Donghyuck passively thinks _'wow, I really wish Mark was a vampire'_ (he's been watching too much fucking Twilight apparently but that's Yukhei's fault) but he's also very content with soft kisses along his neck so he's not complaining.

Donghyuck finds himself leaning his head back onto Mark's shoulder, giving him better access. He swears Mark smiles a little bit into his skin and has Donghyuck mentioned yet that he wants to die? MARK LEE IS KISSING HIS NECK AND DONGHYUCK WANTS TO DIE!

They slow down when the song transitions into a less sexy, more jumpy club song and Mark and Donghyuck slowly peel apart. Donghyuck's face is absolutely burning but thank god the club is dark so Mark (the gorgeous boy who won't stop smiling? _Fuck_ ) can't see it.

"You want some water?" Mark asks over the music and Donghyuck nods, letting Mark pull him back towards the bar. Donghyuck didn't even realize how hot and sweaty he was but water sounded damn good.

The bartender hands them two glasses of water when Mark asks and Donghyuck downs it in seconds.

"So uhm, can I ask you something?" Mark leans in close so Donghyuck can hear him.

"Sure, what's up?" Donghyuck doesn't know how the fuck he managed to sound cool but he did it, woohoo!

"You and Yukhei—you guys are like..."

Donghyuck's heart stops for a minute. Did Mark somehow know about their super identities? Was this really the place to ask about it? Oh my god, Mark knows—

"... you guys are just friends, right?"

Donghyuck can't help but laugh in relief when his heart resumes normal function. 

"Oh god, yeah. Just friends. Childhood friends so that's why we're... the way we are." Donghyuck really has no other explanation for it. There's a different kind of bond when you've been superhero partners since you were like, eight.

Mark smiles and Donghyuck gets the feeling he's relieved too. "Oh, good. I mean, cool, yeah. Wanna dance some more?"

Donghyuck doesn't have the brainpower currently to figure out why Mark's acting like this but he nods because dancing? He can do that.

Donghyuck just wishes he would've taken Mark's hand to follow him back into the crowd—then he wouldn't have been separated by a hand on his shoulder that pulls him away.

Donghyuck spins around to see Sicheng (wearing a suit in a club? _Seriously_?!) with a dark look on his face.

"We have to go. Don't make a scene," Sicheng says and Donghyuck wants to cry.

"No, no, no, no, _no_ ," Donghyuck resists, looking back into the crowd. He's already lost sight of Mark—Mark who probably thinks Donghyuck is following after him. "No, please, not now. Not _now_."

Sicheng's face softens. "I'm sorry."

Donghyuck doesn't feel like he has the strength to move on his own, so he lets Sicheng steer him out of the club and away from the boy who's probably waiting for him.

He's led down a pitch-black alleyway and is pushed into the sleek, SMT engineered armoured black car. Donghyuck lands on the seat with a huff. Yukhei's already in the car, arms crossed over his chest with a cloud of gloom over his head. Donghyuck feels that. He gently nudges his shoulder against Yukhei's in solidarity. 

"Seatbelts." Sicheng orders from the front passenger seat. The car speeds off the second they oblige—Donghyuck doesn't know if he trusts whichever employee is in the driver's seat right now to get them wherever it is that they're going without a couple of fucking bruises with how fast they're going, especially around corners. Speaking of, it must be _some_ fucking emergency.

"You gonna tell us what's going on or what?" Donghyuck ends up asking because no one's said shit yet and he's still mad about having to fucking ditch Mark without even saying anything. How the fuck was he going to explain that? Fuck. It's totally fucking over—whatever they might have had or Donghyuck's deluded himself into thinking they have—it's so done. Fuck.

"We found Renjun and Hendery." Sicheng says. Donghyuck's mind shuts up for a second because at least their friends are found. "We're in the middle of extraction but they've got more supers we didn't know about so we needed more backup."

Yukhei takes a long deep sigh from beside Donghyuck. "And there was absolutely no one else to call?"

Donghyuck glances over and notices Yukhei's shirt is significantly more tussled and unbuttoned than it had been _before_ going inside the club, Then he spots the already healing purple mark of what can only be a HICKEY on Yukhei's chest and Donghyuck can't help but slap it immediately. Yukhei grunts at the impact and rubs his chest but Donghyuck can still see his cheeks clearly starting to turn pink. Sicheng clears his throat and Donghyuck suddenly remembers what the conversation had been about prior to his discovery.

(He gives Yukhei the _'we're going to talk about this later'_ look. Donghyuck flushes with pride for his best friend and superpartner and gets even angrier that they were both interrupted.)

"You were the absolute last resort," Sicheng sighs and with the gravity of his tone they know he's telling the truth. Sicheng tosses them both the devices they'd left at home that night that they attach to their forearms and their supersuits expand on their body over their clothes (but still gives them that nice fit. There's no way they could look dumb with almost skintight-like suits with fucking clothes rumpled underneath. The wonders of technology.)

(They don't feel skintight, just so you know. They fit perfectly. They just look that way. Donghyuck likes the way it shapes his calves when he sees himself in the news and Youtube videos.)

"What's the objective for our mission?" Donghyuck asks once his mask is on. He might be mad about getting pulled onto the job but he might as well know what the fuck they're going this time. Last time was shit, obviously.

"Keep as many Faceless as you can busy and distracted so Renjun and Hendery can get away, but don't get hurt or I'll kill you."

The car stops and Yukhei and Donghyuck hop out. Donghyuck swears he hears Sicheng mutter good luck before they dash off toward the commotion.

It's a warehouse (because of course it is) and it's swarming with Faceless, already battling it out with the SMT supers that are there. Donghyuck spies Johnny and Kun in one corner and he swears he sees the lightning bolt speedster that is Yangyang that runs past them, tripping over some goonies in the process.

Yukhei lowers himself wordlessly and Donghyuck hops onto his back. Donghyuck surrounds them both in his protective shield and they barrel into the crowd like Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King. Donghyuck holds onto Yukhei with one arm and pushes out his shields with the other, knocking Faceless coming from behind while Yukhei uses his strength and claws that grow out of his knuckles to knock them out from the front.

Feeling like a badass fucking team is everything to Donghyuck. He feels like he and Yukhei could save the goddamn world right now with the way they're working together. After their last disaster of a mission, this makes Donghyuck feel amazing.

"Yo, Sonic!" Donghyuck calls out to Yangyang, "Is Scream here?"

Yangyang only responds because he fucking hates when Donghyuck calls him that and that's exactly why Donghyuck does it. "He was for a second—knocked out a shit ton of their own people and now he's gone. Johnny was battling this kid that had almost the same super strength as him—it was fucking crazy. He's gone now too." Yangyang zips off when he's done updating them (in total it takes less than 10 seconds anyway) and Donghyuck has to hurriedly push back a few advancing Faceless. At least he doesn't have to worry about Sonic Scream and shielding their ears too.

With a pretty forceful push clearing most of the Faceless away from behind them, Donghyuck takes the opportunity to look at their surroundings. It seems their entrance has helped Johnny and Kun get a hold on their own horde of Faceless and he can hear Yeri and Irene battling it out outside with some others.

Then his eyes lock onto a familiar shade of pink hair.

Donghyuck stares because he doesn't know what else to do. That guy from last time, the Faceless he de-hooded is in the warehouse, up in the rafters, hoodless and staring down at him with that same goddamn smile. Donghyuck feels like his breath stops completely (in the bad way).

 _‘Sup_.

The voice comes from inside his head but it's not his inner voice saying it. It's deep and vaguely familiar and Donghyuck only realizes it's the pink-haired guy when his smile gets wider.

_Sweet dreams!_

He hears it again and Donghyuck's vision begins to blur around the edges. His limbs feel weak even as he desperately tries to keep clinging onto Yukhei but he just can't—he doesn't have the strength. Donghyuck's eyes roll to the back of his head and he blacks out—letting go of his grip on Yukhei and falling to the ground.

  
✨

Yukhei doesn't like being the one not confined to a hospital bed. At least he knows if he gets hurt then he can heal rather quickly. Donghyuck on the other hand—he's gonna take longer and even worse, they can't figure out what's wrong with him.

Yukhei stews in his dark thoughts by himself while sitting on the bed opposite Donghyuck. It's all he's got while his partner's asleep. He hasn't checked his phone since Sicheng pulled him out of the club. He doesn't want to see what Jeno may or may not have said—which would be worse? Jeno calling him an asshole or Jeno not saying anything at all?

Yukhei sighs to himself. Maybe he and Donghyuck could just become full-time supers and drop out of college so they'd never have to face Mark or Jeno ever again. Sure, Yukhei would miss the fuck out of Jeno but god—how the fuck is he gonna lie out of this one?

"You look like shit."

Yukhei looks up to see Renjun and Hendery at the door, a mug in each of their hands. Yukhei can smell the brand of herbal tea, no doubt given to them by Kun.

"Thanks," Yukhei takes the mug Hendery gives to him and takes a sip. "Feel like shit."

Renjun hums, putting the extra mug on the table beside Donghyuck's bed and taking a sip from his own. "Nothing fucks you up like saving your friends after they've been kidnapped, huh?"

Yukhei can't help but chuckle. "You two seem fine," he points out. Other than some mild dark shadows under their eyes and slight gaunt in their cheeks—maybe a little less shine to Renjun's silver hair—they really do seem to be fine even after being kidnapped for a couple of days.

"The guy in charge of holding us fell in love with Hendery, so," Renjun explains. Yukhei looks to Hendery who just shrugs.

"Well... was he cute?" Yukhei asks.

"He helped kidnap us, Yukhei." Renjun reminds him but Yukhei doesn't think that it's _that_ big of a deal. It's not like he killed either of them, so.

Hendery just shrugs again.

"The only reason we got out was because the dude has those shadowing powers and I got close enough to touch him and replicate them. Managed to contact SMT and get the fuck out of there. I'm sure Hendery's still thinking about him. What did he tell you his name was? Xiao—?"

"Dejun," Hendery says a little too firmly for someone who was simply shrugging earlier. Yukhei raises a brow and Hendery avoids his gaze entirely. Middle Huang has a crush? On the Enemy? Romantic as fuck.

Renjun's also raising a brow at him. "Dejun. Right."

A groan is heard from the bed and Donghyuck is shifting, hands rubbing at his eyes as he wakes up.

"Wakey, wakey," Renjun singsongs and Donghyuck groans even louder and more distressed at the sound of Renjun’s voice. "Amazing. Even when it's _my_ rescue mission you still manage to make it about _you_ , huh," Renjun's tone is teasing, there's something gentle in the way he sits on the side of Donghyuck's hospital bed. He hands him the extra mug as Donghyuck sits up.

"God, why did we rescue him again?" Donghyuck mutters and Yukhei leans over to run a hand through Donghyuck's hair.

Renjun holds his hand up. "We rescued ourselves, thank you. Anyway, I heard you've been blacking out or some shit? Ten and Sicheng were arguing about it in the hallway."

"I swear, they're just gonna go at it right then and there one day. The sexual tension is unreal." Hendery shudders and Donghyuck almost chokes on his tea. Yukhei pats his back.

"Ew! Why would you say that? While they're arguing over me? Fuck. Gross." Donghyuck sighs, taking a proper sip. They wait until he's finished so he can continue. Yukhei's pats turn into rubs.

Donghyuck clears his throat. "The first mission, the one that was a trap—"

"The one you fucked up?"

"Shut up, Renjun. There was this Faceless standing on the side so I went over—he didn't seem like he had any powers, he just kind of took it but then he like, grabs the back of my neck and said something about not going according to plan? I don't know but I blacked out."

Yukhei shudders when thinking about how he felt Donghyuck's weight fall from his back. He'd barely been able to catch him from falling onto the pavement on time. "He was there last night, wasn't he?"

Donghyuck nods. "Heard his voice in my head when I saw him. I forget what he said though. Did you two ever see some pink-headed bitch when you were captured? Low voice? Annoyingly handsome?"

Renjun shakes his head. "We only ever saw Xiaojun."

"Dejun," Hendery corrects under his breath.

Donghyuck frowns. "Who the fuck is Xiaojun?"

"Hendery's star-crossed lover from the Faceless." Yukhei supplies and Hendery almost drops his mug on the floor.

"His name is Dejun and we're not— _lovers_!"

"So you're admitting you're star-crossed at least?"

Hendery's shoulders sag. "I hate this. I hate all of you."

Donghyuck clicks his tongue. "Trust me man, whatever you've got going on is already better than what Yukhei and I are gonna have to face back at school."

Yukhei's heart drops into his stomach, thinking about his untouched phone for that very reason. It was nice pretending everything was fine for a couple of minutes.

Several raised voices could be heard coming from right outside the room and Renjun takes that as he and Hendery's cue to leave apparently.

"They're gonna give me a headache," he sighs. "Good luck."

Sicheng, Ten, Taeyong and several other SMT employees Yukhei is too tired to remember the names of burst in while Renjun and Hendery slip out, unnoticed. Johnny and Kun are much calmer when they follow in behind.

Sometimes Yukhei wishes he was just a normal college kid.

  
But sometimes Yukhei also wishes he was just a full-time superhero 'cause that would mean he wouldn't be stuck in his dorm in self-isolation because he absolutely knows that with his luck, he's going to run into Jeno or Mark.

Not that he’s fully ghosted Jeno or anything. He eventually texted him back, saying he was sorry and that there had been an emergency. Jeno had mainly been mad that Yukhei had just left without an explanation even though Yukhei had had time to murmur to him that he had to go when Sicheng pulled him away. Yukhei thought Jeno’s anger was still justified and he felt like shit for not being able to tell the truth and he still feels like that.

Donghyuck on the other hand, hasn’t been so lucky. Mark had been in an absolute panic when Donghyuck hadn’t joined him through the crowd and when Donghyuck hadn’t responded to his messages either… it’s safe to say they aren’t on talking grounds at the moment. Yukhei can see it’s kinda destroying Donghyuck on the inside and it’s been slowly bleeding out. He’s been talking in his sleep and obviously not sleeping well and Yukhei wishes he could reverse their position just because it breaks his heart, seeing Donghyuck like this. He and Jeno might be on slightly better terms but it’s nothing like it was before. The hickey that had been on Yukhei’s chest for five minutes before it healed completely almost feels like a fever dream.

At least they aren’t on any missions. They’ve been ordered onto a break, especially since they still haven’t figured out what mysterious pink-haired dude did to Donghyuck—or if he even did anything. Donghyuck insists he feels fine but Taeyong made Yukhei swear that he’d bring him into the SMT hospital ward if anything seemed amiss.

Other than heartbreak, Yukhei doesn't see anything wrong either, but he still worries, of course. The fact that they’ve both locked themselves in their dorm room for the time being doesn’t really help—Yukhei loves Donghyuck, really, they’re practically brothers at this point but he feels like he needs some non-Donghyuck air to breathe and eventually, Donghyuck agrees he needs the same.

Yukhei ventures out first, as his situation with Jeno is infinitely less dire. Of course he’s happy about that but he really can’t enjoy it when his best friend and superpartner is suffering like he is. When it seemed like Mark and Donghyuck were doing well, Yukhei wished he could turn the tides. Now he just wishes he hadn’t wished that and fuck whatever higher power actually listened to him. He hadn’t actually meant it! Not like this, ugh.

So Yukhei finds himself in the library for hours on end, finding himself a new corner to bury himself in (he bids farewell to his old one with tears in his eyes. He’s gonna miss that couch and how it felt to sit next to Jeno on it. _Sighs_.) He actually gets some studying in which is like, rare! That’s kinda cool. Maybe he just needed a change of pace or something. Or it’s just something he would rather concentrate on rather than thinking about Jeno because then he’ll just get sad. Like, yeah it might be better than Donghyuck’s disaster with Mark but it’s still… not great. Jeno had said he was a little angry, a little disappointed, but he’d never said he didn’t want to talk to Yukhei ever again—that was a good thing, right?

Yukhei shakes his head. He’s not even supposed to be thinking about Jeno right now! Especially not about Jeno smiling (will he ever see that directed at him again?) or the way Jeno looks when he’s concentrated when studying or the tone he has when he’s doing a presentation or when he goes on those fucking adorable history rants oh my god—

Enough, Yukhei chides himself. He’s supposed to be doing his psych homework, fuck.

He buries his head back into his work but it's too soon when he feels his eyelids drooping and his body naturally slinks into his chair.

"You look really tired."

Yukhei sits up at attention, way too fast his head spins a bit. Half of him in his deliriousness expects to see Renjun teasing him because that's the kind of thing Renjun says. He immediately knows who the voice belongs to though—maybe it was just wishful thinking hoping it wasn't Jeno in his unzipped quarter zip.

(Of all things to wear. He has to wear the one Yukhei is weakest to. Does he know that? Is his superpower being Yukhei's kryptonite? God.)

Yukhei clears his throat, hands going to arrange his set up of notebooks, pretending to be busy like he didn't just get caught snoozing off into his notes. "Yeah—Yeah, Hyuck's been talking in his sleep which makes it, uhm, hard. Sometimes he yells. It's loud."

Jeno raises a brow and Yukhei realizes he's talking too fast and probably saying too much, but he really can't help it! Jeno looks him once over and Yukhei feels like he's on fire. It's starting to trigger his fight or flight response—while his canine teeth beg to be released and snarl to defend himself his legs want to sprint away as far as he can go—into a cave to be a weird wolf-human hybrid forever. Maybe they'll write spooky stories about him and some poor children will go out to find him one thunderstorming night and he'll be so used to being an animal he'll end up eating them—Yukhei doesn't want to eat any children! Granted, the only wolf qualities he has is the teeth and the weird claw things that grow out of his hands. He doesn't develop fur or anything, he isn't a werewolf. People just call him the Raging Wolf. Yukhei thinks something like Wolverine would've been way cooler—

"You seem like you've got a lot on your mind. You okay?"

Jeno's voice snaps Yukhei out of his runaway train of thought. Holy shit. He's on Donghyuck level of thought, he must be really stressed. Usually he's just head empty, no thoughts. Damn. He needs to sleep.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for uh, checking. You know, _school_."

Jeno nods his head, hands going into his jean pockets. God, he's posing so effortlessly. "Yeah, I feel that. Well, I'll see you around, okay? Don't be a stranger."

Yukhei can only lift a hand up in goodbye. What does that mean? Does that mean Jeno doesn't hate him? Wants to talk to him? Maybe they're okay? Holy shit.

Yukhei can barely concentrate after Jeno's gone so he decides to pack all his shit up—he's been gone for hours anyway, it was a nice reset. It's time to go back to his dorm.

Donghyuck's still there when Yukhei gets back but he's not annoyed at all. Yukhei does try to hide his better mood though because man, Donghyuck looks like absolute shit. His eye bags are darker than ever and he looks like he's been crying.

Yukhei drops his bag and joins Donghyuck on his bean bag chair, arm going around his shoulders to pull him into Yukhei's chest. He can tell Donghyuck's trying to hold back his tears but Yukhei rubs his back until Donghyuck finally begins to let them out.

Yukhei holds his best friend tightly, blinking away his own tears at his friend's sadness. He can tell these tears aren't just about Mark—they're about everything. It's the responsibilities they didn't ask for when having superpowers—for the responsibilities of having a normal college life, for balancing it all together along with relationships. It's the lying to people you care about who don't know about a huge part of your life and you want to tell them so badly but you can't, either because you risk them getting hurt or it'll be too much for them and they won't care about you anymore.

It's a lot to weigh on two boys who are just trying to do their best at all these things.

So Yukhei cries with Donghyuck until they're all cried out and Donghyuck's eyes are fluttering shut. Yukhei picks him up because he still has his strength and tucks him into bed. He wipes the remainder of Donghyuck's tears off his cheeks and crawls onto his own mattress. Yukhei falls asleep almost instantly, exhausted.

Yukhei's eyes shoot open and he stares at the ceiling of the dorm room. It's still dark, so it's still night time but he's wide awake. He's confused for what seems like a fraction of a second when the screaming resumes.

Yukhei scrambles to his feet, ready to find whoever it is but realizes he doesn't even need to look far—it's coming from right beside him.

He's never heard Donghyuck scream so shrilly in his entire life—didn't even know Donghyuck's vocal cords could _produce_ such a sound. Yukhei stands there, frozen. Donghyuck still has his eyes closed—sleeping? He looks in pain. Yukhei at least has half the mind to get his phone to call Taeyong though—but the second he reaches for it Donghyuck screams louder and his hands come up from underneath the blanket and he starts to claw at his skin with his nails.

Donghyuck doesn't have nails like Yukhei does—or claws, but the wounds he leaves on his skin makes it seem like he does. He rakes down his chest and arms and neck before Yukhei can disregard his phone and anything he's ever heard about sleepwalking—grabbing hold of Donghyuck's wrists to stop him. There's already blood on the sheets and in Donghyuck's clothes and Donghyuck won't stop _fucking screaming_.

He's asleep—asleep having some sort of nightmare that makes him—Yukhei's panicking because whatever the fuck is going on—it's making Donghyuck strong, almost as strong as him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Yukhei chants. He grabs the pillow underneath Donghyuck's head and shoves it on top of his face. He's not trying to kill him obviously, but he can't scream if he can't breathe and it'll at least knock him out.

Yukhei actually struggles holding Donghyuck down—which shouldn't be something that's possible—for a good minute before the screams stop and his arms go lax. Yukhei removes the pillow and places his head on Donghyuck's chest. His heartbeat is faint but it's there.

"What the fuck," Yukhei wants to cry all over again. He has no idea what's going on and Donghyuck's trying to kill himself in his sleep or something? _What the fuck_.

Yukhei only thinks about one thing: he has to get Donghyuck to Taeyong. So he scoops Donghyuck's limp body up, blood soaking into both of their pajamas and runs out of their dorm room.

He doesn't care about the late-night studiers out in the common areas—he sprints by them as fast as he can, going down the stairs because he's not waiting for a fucking elevator. He's going so fast he almost barrels straight into a familiar quarter zip passing by the entrance to the dorm that he'd seen earlier that day.

"Yukhei? Oh, what the fuck—" Jeno exclaims, eyes widening when he sees the state of Donghyuck in Yukhei's arms. "Holy shit, are you taking him to the clinic? Fuck, let me go with you—let me get rid of my bag and call them so they know we’re coming."

Jeno runs off and Yukhei knows he has at least twenty seconds until he's gonna pop back out from his own dorm building. Donghyuck can't go to the school clinic—he's gotta go to SMT, but Jeno can't know that.

Yukhei closes his eyes, mutters a curse and an apology and sprints away as fast as he can—beyond human level. Jeno will never be able to catch up or even see him.

Yukhei clears his mind of all thoughts of what he's just done. This is about Donghyuck, in his arms, bloody. Yukhei runs like his life depends on it. He doesn't slow down when he gets to SMT—he'll apologize for the wreck he made of the door later. Right now, Donghyuck needs help.

Yukhei sees the flash of silver hair in the distance so he already knows it's Renjun when he sits beside him, wordlessly patting his forearm in comfort. It doesn't help, but Yukhei appreciates the gesture.

It feels like he's been waiting outside the hospital room for days even though it's only been hours. It's the first time Yukhei's ever not been allowed in when Donghyuck's the one in the bed. He hates it, he feels antsy—he's got no idea what's going on, fuck. Is Donghyuck even okay? Is he dead? No, Yukhei knows he isn't—he'd feel that in his core if he was. Donghyuck's alive—he just doesn't know in what kind of state.

Both Yukhei and Renjun's heads snap up when the door opens and Taeyong and Sicheng step out of Donghyuck's room. The curtain around Donghyuck's bed is covering him, so Yukhei can't even see him.

"He's going to be okay," Taeyong raises a hand to stop Yukhei from barreling in. It wouldn't have stopped him if he used his strength but Yukhei is so tired. He trusts Taeyong's word, in the end. "We've figured out what happened to him."

Before Yukhei can ask, Sicheng tilts his head and begins walking down the hallway, leading them to an empty conference room. Yukhei holds onto Renjun's shoulder for support. He knows he's not crushing the much smaller Huang because he's replicated Yukhei's strength power and can definitely hold himself up.

Yukhei falls into one of the chairs along with Renjun and Sicheng begins explaining.

"The boy Donghyuck talked about—the one he keeps seeing? He's got a superpower. Dream manipulation."

Yukhei chews on his fingernails. That explains a lot—the talking in his dreams, maybe the blacking out? If the guy was in Donghyuck's head, who knows how much he had access to?

"We've already got people working on how to sever the connection in the safest way possible. In the meantime, Donghyuck's gonna have to stay here for a while. We've sent in a sick notice to his teachers already."

Sicheng's face softens when he looks at Yukhei. "You're free to take a couple days off too, you know. If you want to stay here with Hyuck for a bit."

Yukhei nods. He wouldn't want to be anywhere else. He'd never be able to concentrate in an empty dorm room.

"Do we know what they want? Donghyuck said the guy said this wasn't according to plan—who did he want to manipulate like that?" Renjun asks, obviously the most level-headed out of the two of them.

Sicheng's gaze locks on Yukhei's again and Yukhei gulps, stomach filling with dread. If it had been him in Donghyuck's shoes, Donghyuck wouldn't have been able to subdue him. Yukhei shudders when he thinks of what might have been the result.

Renjun understands too. "We have to stop them. They keep going too far—kidnapping, _torture_? Tell me we're doing something about this!"

"We're working on a plan. One that won't go wrong, okay? We need to know what we're up against, especially with these supers just appearing out of nowhere all the time. Now, Yukhei, Taeyong tells me the bed beside Donghyuck is free, if you'd like to rest for the day."

Yukhei nods, finally feeling the exhaustion roll over him once more. He just can't get a damn break, can he? He bids goodbye to Renjun and follows Taeyong back to the hospital ward. 

Yukhei makes a point of pulling back the curtain around Donghyuck's bed so he can see him, take a look at his face properly. He takes in the sight of his best friend in bandages, but looking more rested than he has in days.

"What if the guy gets him again while he's here?" Yukhei croaks out. Taeyong rubs his back and gently pushes him to lie down on his own bed and Yukhei goes willingly.

"Hyuck's in an induced coma for now. He won't be able to get into Donghyuck's head."

"How long?" Yukhei's eyes fill with tears. God, he's so tired.

"As long as it takes until the connection's severed. Hopefully not long." Taeyong smiles and caresses the side of Yukhei's face. Yukhei feels himself being lulled to sleep even though that isn't even Taeyong's power. "Rest well, Yukhei."

Donghyuck is pulled out of his coma a few days later. Yukhei is right there next to him, the first face Donghyuck looks to when he wakes up.

"Holy shit," are the first words he rasps out, "What the fuck."

Yukhei can't help but laugh.

Donghyuck goes through tests and the first night he goes to sleep without the help of a coma, Yukhei lays right next to him. He doesn't have any nightmares and they've stated that the connection between him and the Faceless has been severed.

Donghyuck is still Donghyuck and Yukhei is so fucking relieved. Yukhei stays with him at SMT until Donghyuck insists he goes back to school.

"At least fix what you have with Jeno." Donghyuck clicks his tongue. "You're allowed to use me as an excuse. Say I had to go to a special hospital or something."

Yukhei moans. "I hate lying, Hyuck. It sucks."

"I mean, it's not untrue," Donghyuck shrugs. His wounds are beginning to heal but the ones on his chest and arms—those will probably scar. "Just say you can't talk about it. You still deserve a chance at a normal college romance."

Yukhei nudges him gently. "So do you."

Donghyuck shrugs. "At this point you're in a better place then I am. I'll live through you, okay? Go get your mans."

So Yukhei only goes back to school at Donghyuck's insistence that he'll join soon anyway. He's only gotta stay a couple more days at SMT for testing and then he'll be back. 

Yukhei opens the door to their dorm and is greeted to the sight of a clean dorm and sheets—someone from SMT must have come in to clean while they were gone. Thank god, because Yukhei has no idea how the fuck he would've gotten old blood out of the carpet or how the fuck he would've explained that to their RA.

His phone is on his bedside table, plugged in and charged at one hundred percent—it's probably been plugged in for a while so his battery might be fucked but whatever. There's a dozen missed messages and calls from Jeno—Yukhei opens their chat and ignores all the ones sent already. He doesn't want to read them.

  
**Yukhei:** Hey. Can we meet up to talk? I owe you an apology.

  
It's five minutes later when Yukhei gets a response.

  
**Jeno** : I'm in the library. Fifth floor.

  
Something stirs in Yukhei's stomach. It's dark and gloomy and makes him feel a little sick. 

  
**Yukhei:** I'll be there in twenty.

  
It only takes a few minutes to walk to the library but Yukhei decides to make a pitstop on the way there. Food helps smooth over an apology, right?

Yukhei ends up buying one dinner platter of shawarma and walks it over to the library, ignoring the slight growling of his own stomach. He'd have to go get his own food after this. Or maybe it's just nerves, he has no idea. He's just glad he doesn't drop the shawarma on the carpet floor when he spots Jeno sitting in their former spot on Yukhei's favourite couch.

He almost drops it again when Jeno looks up and locks eyes with him. Yukhei takes a moment to compose himself and approaches, smiling even when Jeno doesn't reciprocate. 

"I brought a bribe?" It comes out as a timid question. Yukhei sets the bag of food down on the table and sits on the couch across from Jeno. Thankfully, the library is pretty quiet today and Yukhei won't have to worry about the entire campus hearing Jeno yell at him if it comes to that.

Yukhei can see the interest flash in Jeno's eyes when the smell of shawarma finally hits him. He hides it fast though, but it does give Yukhei a glimpse of hope. They stare at each other until Jeno gives in and sighs.

"Yukhei... what the fuck?"

Yukhei's shoulders sag and his head droops forward. "I know... I'm sorry. I really—I couldn't wait, I had to get Hyuck to the clinic."

"I know, I get that but when I got to the clinic you two weren't even there? So why are you lying to me?"

Jeno's hurt and it's like a knife in Yukhei's heart when he hears it in his voice. God, he hates this all so, so much. He hates lying to Jeno. He reminds himself of Donghyuck's words that this isn't technically lying because on the surface level it really is true—but it still doesn't feel great to say.

"I'm sorry," Yukhei's voice cracks. He feels so defeated. "Donghyuck... he can't just go to a regular clinic. I had to get him to his doctor."

Jeno raises a brow and doesn't say anything, he nods his head to encourage Yukhei to keep going. Yukhei can't though.

He shakes his head. "I can't tell you more, I'm sorry."

Yukhei avoids Jeno's gaze because it really feels like it might just slice through him.

"What are you apologizing for, Yukhei?"

Yukhei runs a hand through his hair. He thinks for a moment before deciding, fuck it, and letting the words just spill out.

"I'm sorry for leaving you in the dark, for literally abandoning you and making you think I just disappear and for making you worry. I'm so shitty to you and you don't deserve that and I can't even explain the reason why, which sucks because _fuck,_ Jeno, I really fucking like you but Donghyuck's like my brother and—if I lose him, I lose everything. He's my number one priority, which means I can't—I can't tell you the things I want to or stop being so shitty to you by putting him first. I'm sorry."

Jeno blinks at him, face blank and for a brief second Yukhei thinks maybe he wasn't actually saying words even though it sounded like it? He doesn't even remember what he said already. Was he speaking in English? Did he switch languages by accident? Fuck.

"Just, uhm, let me gather my thoughts?" Jeno clears his throat. "That... wasn't what I was expecting is all. Wow."

Hours pass by before Jeno speaks again. (This is an exaggeration. It's like, only a minute.)

"That was like, really fucking honest and I don't know whether to be shocked or turned on?" Jeno's voice rises at the end and Yukhei chokes on his own spit, cheeks turning red. "Just—thank you for explaining that to me? I don't really know or get what goes on between you and Donghyuck—and you don't need to tell me but I think I understand our situation a little better now."

Yukhei stares at him. "You do?" Yukhei wasn't just spouting the first nonsense that came to his head?

Jeno shrugs and for the first time looks a little sheepish and shy. His shoulders hike up cutely and Yukhei's entire body is tingling—he has no idea what's going on. 

"Yeah, like, we aren't dating or anything so of course I'm not number one priority and obviously whatever's going on with Donghyuck is really important," Jeno scratches the back of his neck. Yukhei's mind is reeling. Did he just say the word _'dating'?_ "But uhm, I'd like to be on the priority list of ' _tell Jeno I'm okay instead of disappearing for days on end',_ that's all. My little selfish desire."

Yukhei has no idea if he's computing any of this correctly but he nods anyway because fuck yeah, he can do that. Hearing Jeno say that he wants that lights a fire in Yukhei. A good fire, a warm fire. "I can do that, yeah."

Jeno smiles and the entire universe sings. "Cool, do you wanna share this shawarma with me?" Yukhei's vision must be blurring because he swears Jeno is blushing a little bit. Must be nice to be cute when you're shy instead of the red tomato that is Yukhei.

"You don't want that, I'll eat it all." 

Jeno laughs but Yukhei's not joking. He's starving now with all this stress of Jeno not hating him.

"Okay, what if I put it in the mini-fridge in my dorm room and we went out for dinner or something?"

Yukhei short circuits. "Like, a—"

Jeno stands up, slinging his backpack on his shoulder all cool and nonchalantly. "A date. I really fucking like you too, Yukhei." 

"Holy fuck," Yukhei ends up squeaking out before clearing his throat and purposely lowering his voice back to its totally regular tone. "Yeah, sure. Cool. Great."

Jeno laughs and takes the bag of shawarma in his hand, tilting his head, telling Yukhei to get up. Yukhei practically scrambles up and follows Jeno out of the library.

This went entirely different than he expected. He might not be able to tell Jeno the truth but... Maybe one day. Exploring that option wasn't such a bad idea, for now.

(HOLY FUCK HE'S GOING ON A DINNER DATE WITH JENO WHAT THE FUCKKKKK HE'S HAD NO MENTAL PREPARATION??? OH MY GODDDDDD!!!)

✨

  
Donghyuck's return to school isn't anything special or anything. Nobody's singing in the hallways or some shit—he's pretty sure the only reason some people even noticed he was gone for two weeks was because they saw Yukhei alone for a couple days before Donghyuck returned.

Donghyuck has no idea what to expect anyway. It's been weeks since he's seen or talked to Mark and it’s for the best. He's had a lot of time to think while in that damn hospital ward (for better or worse).

(Probably worse.)

Donghyuck's huddled himself into a corner in the library because he's sick of being stuck in one room for an extended amount of time and also because Yukhei and Jeno are out together and they're probably making out in Yukhei and Donghyuck's room. Donghyuck doesn't mind! He just... doesn't want to be there, obviously.

He should probably be taking this opportunity to study or something—especially since their supersuits and earpieces have been taken away as they've been put on a ' _mandatory break_ '. They just don't want Donghyuck and Yukhei going off on their own when they inevitably get antsy.

Right now, Donghyuck's just a regular college student, which means he's going to use his precious study time in the library to play The Sims 4 instead. He just got caught up buying all the expansions in a fifty percent off sale! This is the best thing that's happened to him in days!

(Which is sad, but he'll take what he can get for now.)

Besides, his sim, Aylin Lu, is doing so fucking good at school, she's studying computer science and her GPA is fucking soaring and she's got this rad girlfriend named Miko with pink hair and they're so in love, whew. Way better than what Donghyuck's got going on. Whatever it is he still has left. He's not so sure, really.

Donghyuck hears the chuckle under breath before he sees the silver-haired demon appear from behind one of the bookshelves in the library.

Donghyuck barely spares Renjun a glance—he goes right back to his game. "You don't even go here."

"And you don't bring your phone to your late-night library Sim sessions, apparently," Renjun plops onto the chair beside Donghyuck with a sigh. "I had to interrupt Yukhei and his boytoy to find out where you were."

Donghyuck smirks when he feels Renjun shiver a little beside him, no doubt trying to erase whatever memory he's acquired. He continues to make his sim work on her term paper for her robotics class while Renjun stares a hole through him.

"You know," Renjun starts and Donghyuck knows he doesn't want to hear whatever he's about to say. "They're kinda cute together. Glad they figured their shit out."

Donghyuck clicks on the fridge of his sim so she'll eat with much more force than he intended.

"Hyuck..." Renjun sighs.

Donghyuck finally tears his gaze away from his laptop (not before putting his game on pause though). "Look, I'm happy for them, I really am. All I want is for Yukhei to have that grin on his dumbass face all the time because it's what he should look like—happy. If they're endgame one day and Yukhei decides to tell Jeno what we are and they stay together—amazing, even better. Yukhei can protect Jeno if anyone goes after him."

"You're perfectly capable of protecting anyone you want to, Donghyuck."

Donghyuck shakes his head and whispers. "I can't even protect myself."

Renjun quiets. "So that's what this is about."

Donghyuck shifts in his seat, uncomfortable because he was in bliss while playing the Sims and now he's talking about his feelings and shit. He just wants his sim to graduate and get married! "There's a lot of things this is about." They may have discharged him from the SMT hospital but that doesn't mean Donghyuck isn't scared of sleeping some nights—afraid that that nightmare will come for him again. He shudders.

"Clearly," Renjun sighs and stands up, holding his hand, palm out to Donghyuck. "Come on, the night's still young and you're a very normal college student now, right? Let's go to a party."

"Do you just... find random parties to go to?"

"No, I was invited by the host but I'm also trying to make him jealous, so," Renjun gives Donghyuck a once-over. "We're gonna stop by my dorm first to clean you up, come on."

Donghyuck's resolve to sit in his corner and make sure his sim has the best life she possibly can quickly crumbles with the way Renjun smirks at him. It's infuriating and it's what gets him up off his ass, packing his shit up and following Renjun off-campus.

They clean him up a bit when they get to Renjun's dorm half an hour later, putting Donghyuck in clothes that aren't just sweats and a hoodie. He was comfortable and warm before but you know what, normal college students go to random parties, right? He can sacrifice a little for that. At least it's for a completely different college so he doesn't have to worry about running into Mark Lee.

(This is going exactly where you think it's going.)

Donghyuck leaves his bag at Renjun's dorm and they head over to some house a minute off campus that some students rent out apparently. There's a glint in Renjun's eye that makes Donghyuck suspicious that he might end up three-wheeling at this party but whatever, whenever he usually goes out at night he goes home with some sort of bruise (not the pleasant kind—that's the one that Yukhei is probably currently getting) so at least this is a nice change of pace. Talking to new people won't hurt him.

The party is in full swing when they get there—people are drunk, loud, dancing. It's like every movie that's set in college ever, that kind of party. Renjun takes Donghyuck by the hand and brings him into the kitchen—immediately making them drinks that are sinfully heavy on the alcohol side but it's fine, it's going to pass through them faster than the average human anyway. Donghyuck should get to experience being tipsy for once at least! That's normal college kid stuff, right?

Renjun introduces Donghyuck to some of his classmates, though Donghyuck does end up being relieved when he sees Hendery and Yangyang and mainly spends his time catching up with them when Renjun goes off to find the host that he's clearly thirsting over. 

It's nice though, it's rare to ever really not talk about super stuff, just talking about nothing is kind of cool. Some of it is shit talk, some of it is just funny stories. Hendery tells him about the time one of his Professors plugged their laptop into the projector for class and it opened up to porn and Donghyuck's drink almost goes up through his nose he laughs too hard mid-sip. 

He berates Hendery for even telling the story while he's drinking but Donghyuck buzzes—not even from the alcohol, just from feeling—normal? He can forget that two weeks ago he almost clawed himself to death in his sleep thanks to his dreams being manipulated! Which is of course, why nothing ever stays normal when you're someone who is very much, not normal and won't ever be.

"Donghyuck?"

It's that slap-in-the-face kind of sobering when Donghyuck hears Mark Lee's voice from behind him. Hendery raises a questioning brow at Donghyuck's face of terror and Yangyang just takes a quiet sip of his drink, obviously very interested in watching whatever is about to happen in front of him.

Donghyuck turns slowly so that the figment of his imagination has time to disappear—which of course, it doesn't because it's not his imagination, Mark is standing in front of him, red cup in his hand, looking fucking good (though Donghyuck does notice the bags under his eyes—is school getting to him?) and also looking at Donghyuck like _he's_ the one imagining Donghyuck at this party across the damn city. Of all fucking places to run into him.

Fucking karma. Donghyuck doesn't talk or see Mark for weeks and this is where he runs into him instead of on their shared fucking campus? God, and because Donghyuck is actually flabbergasted that Mark's in front of him right now, he ends up saying, "Hey, fancy seeing you here," like a fucking idiot.

"Yeah," Mark seems just as bewildered as Donghyuck. "I didn't think I'd—what brings you here?"

Donghyuck juts his thumb out to where Yangyang and Hendery were standing—they've suddenly disappeared now for some fucking reason. "I have friends—oh, they're gone. Of course. Great. You?"

"I went to high school with the host, so. We caught up recently and—yeah,"

(THIS IS SO FUCKING AWKWARD.)

"Oh, I haven't met him yet but I think one of my friends is trying to get with the host. If you see a silver-haired fox slinking around—"

"Oh, Renjun!" The corner of Mark's lips curves up slightly into the first almost-smile Donghyuck's been missing so fucking badly. He savors the moment even if he feels like he doesn't deserve to. "I haven't met him but Jaemin's talked about him a lot. I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual."

Well, that gives Donghyuck some relief then. He really does want his friends to be happy.

Mark clears his throat when they reach an awkward standstill since it's clear Donghyuck isn't going to say anything more, mainly because he has no idea what to say.

"So, where's Yukhei?" Mark ends up asking. Donghyuck swears he winces a little bit, as if that hadn't been the question he wanted to ask.

Donghyuck shrugs. "Probably in our dorm room with Jeno doing—you know," and because he doesn't know how to stop talking sometimes, he continues with, "I was peacefully living my best Sims life in the library when Renjun forced me out here."

"First of all, I can't believe you just admitted to that, loser," Renjun comes out of nowhere like he always does, slinging his arm around Donghyuck's shoulders. Clearly, he helped himself to another very strongly mixed drink. "Secondly, Donghyuck, this is Jaemin."

Donghyuck rolls his eyes to pretend to be annoyed at Renjun until his gaze lands on the pink-haired boy that Renjun pulls forward—and Donghyuck's heart plummets down into the depths of hell and every vein in his fucking body fills with dread.

The pink-haired boy—Jaemin—the dude from the fucking Faceless has this disgusting heart-eyed gaze set on Renjun before he turns to Donghyuck and recognition flashes through his eyes. He smiles at Donghyuck, that award-winning, handsome smile that makes Donghyuck feel nauseous. 

"Donghyuck?" He says, not even pretending like he's meeting Donghyuck for the first time. He juts his chin out with a nod. "Hey." 

Maybe Donghyuck should have a filter on him of some sort in moments like these but really—can you blame him? The fucker in front of him is the reason for the scars on his body right now, the reason Donghyuck can't fucking sleep some nights, the reason he's decided to not let anyone special into his life because it isn't worth it if he or them get hurt. He doesn't regret it at all when he manages to not hold back any venom in his voice when he says, "You gotta be fucking kidding me."

Mark visibly startles. "I thought you said you didn't know Jaemin?"

Renjun on the other hand, watches Donghyuck carefully. His grip loosens on Jaemin's wrist because he can immediately tell something is wrong, which makes Donghyuck's ego soar when Jaemin notices and pouts a little.

"Didn't know his name but I think we've seen each other a couple of times, haven't we? Hair colour like that is hard to forget." Donghyuck responds. Renjun fully pulls away from Jaemin and Donghyuck can hear him muttering curse words under his breath when he realizes that his pink-haired crush is Donghyuck's pink-haired nightmare, which sucks, really, 'cause there's probably loads of other pink-haired dudes in this city, but of course, it all comes down to one particular one.

Jaemin smirks, igniting the fire in Donghyuck's body. "I am quite memorable, aren't I?"

Mark looks between the two of them, eyebrows raised. "Y'all got beef, or?"

Jaemin slings his own arm around Mark's shoulders and Donghyuck's nostrils flare on instinct, feeling the heat in his palms. Renjun clasps his hand in one of Donghyuck's, a silent urge to not do anything so fucking stupid it could ruin his life.

But Donghyuck's protective instincts are on fucking fire, knowing that Jaemin is Mark's _'friend'_ , knowing what Jaemin can do to people and experiencing that firsthand. He doesn't know if he'll be able to contain himself.

"Sure, beef, pork, chicken," Jaemin jokes and Donghyuck's jaw clenches at how he drapes himself over Mark but stares straight at Donghyuck the entire time. "We got everything your little heart desires."

"That's not—dude, what?" Mark has obviously drunk enough to not understand what's going on (and if Donghyuck wasn't so fucking pissed off he'd think the joke was funny—in an alternate universe).

"Chenle," Jaemin calls and some blonde dude approaches them. Donghyuck narrows his eyes—is he a random classmate or has Donghyuck seen this guy in a hood too? He doesn't trust anyone at this party anymore. "Find something for Mark to eat, will you?"

"What, are we in the fucking wild or some shit?" The Chenle guy snorts but still does as he's told (which makes Donghyuck think that he's not just some classmate). Mark, for whatever reason, looks at Donghyuck, eyes searching his for answers. Donghyuck can't give him any though so he forces himself to break their eye contact, choosing instead to glare at Jaemin's smug face.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Mark frown before following Chenle, getting further and further away. Donghyuck suddenly panics—maybe he should've fought for Mark to stay, who knows where that possible Faceless is fucking taking him—Fuck, Donghyuck is so stupid—

"Relax," Jaemin's voice is low when he fully steps into Donghyuck's space. "Nothing's going to happen to him. He _is_ actually my friend."

If Donghyuck's jaw clenches any harder his teeth will snap. Jaemin chuckles.

"No, I'm not still in your head, so don't worry about that either."

Renjun curses under his breath again. He'd probably been hoping his assumptions were wrong but nope, nope, nope! This confirms it. Donghyuck feels bad, if Jaemin hadn't been the worst person in the entire world he would've really been hoping that they'd get together.

Jaemin waits for Donghyuck to say something but Donghyuck isn't too sure what to say—fuck you? I've never wanted to kill anyone in my life when I had the power to until now? He says nothing.

"So," Jaemin crosses his arms over his chest, leaning his foot out to tap on the ground as if they were just _'chilling'_ and not giving off murderous energy towards each other. "Where do we go from here?" Has Donghyuck mentioned how fucking smug and fucking infuriating Jaemin's smile is? He wants to rip it off. Fuck him. "Do we fight? Reveal to all these people that we're not like them? Or do we use this clearly unresolved sexual tension a different way?"

Renjun pulls Donghyuck back before his body can even react, which is very much a good thing. He probably just saved the entire house.

"We're leaving," Renjun says, final. He has a firm grip on Donghyuck's hand and if Donghyuck knows Renjun he's probably replicated the powers of someone with super strength earlier so he could drag Donghyuck anywhere, so it'll be useless of Donghyuck to try and fight it.

Jaemin actually looks sad. His shoulders droop slightly and it wouldn't have been noticeable if Donghyuck wasn't so hyperfocused on him and his every move. "Guess I won't see you later then?"

"Nope," Renjun pops his lips at the sound of the _p_ and pulls Donghyuck away (he was right, he definitely has some super strength power going on right now).

Jaemin, for whatever reason, lets them go. They make it outside the front door when Renjun lets go of Donghyuck's hand and sighs up into the sky.

He turns back to look at Donghyuck, looking pained. "I made fun of Hendery so much and karma bit my ass so hard."

Donghyuck didn't think he'd ever laugh again but he does full-heartedly while pulling Renjun into a hug, his anger temporarily disapparating. "You can cry if you want, I'll only hold it over your head forever."

Renjun breaks into a smile and pushes Donghyuck away playfully. They laugh until they both sigh, staring off into the night.

"Where do we go from here?" Renjun echoes Jaemin's earlier question.

"You don't have to do anything," Donghyuck says softly. "I get it if you're conflicted."

"Conflicted?" Renjun scoffs, "I'm not conflicted. I've seen your fucking scars, Donghyuck, there's nothing to be conflicted about."

Donghyuck raises a brow because he knows better, as much as it pains him to think of Renjun liking that fucker like that. 

Renjun's shoulders sag. "I don't even know if he knew who I was before this either. This could have all been part of a plan."

"Or it could all be a very horrible coincidence, which is more than likely considering our track record," Donghyuck suggests. He wants Renjun to not feel bad but he also wants to slam Jaemin into the depths of hell. This is all very conflicting, but Donghyuck knows one thing for sure—he can't leave without checking to see if Mark is okay.

Renjun sees that in his face when he motions for them to leave but Donghyuck hesitates on the front step. Renjun rolls his eyes and smiles. "Go see him, but don't do anything stupid, alright? If you die, I'll kill you, then Sicheng will kill you after that, got it?"

"Got it," It's crazy how fast his friends can make his anger disappear. Even though he's literally walking right back into the enemy's house, all Donghyuck wants is to make sure Mark's okay. He might not have the right to, considering how he's been so shitty to him but Donghyuck's going to be a little bit selfish tonight. Jaemin can go fuck himself.

When Donghyuck finally finds Mark he's a lot drunker than he'd been ten minutes ago. He's sitting on the floor in the kitchen, slumped against the cupboards, nursing his drink in his paws. (God, he's so CUTE.)

Donghyuck takes his moment to admire because it really has been a while and he fucking misses the shit out of Mark. Maybe in another universe, where Donghyuck is normal and can actually give Mark the attention he deserves.

(A small voice in Donghyuck's head reminds him that Jeno and Yukhei are figuring things out without Jeno even knowing Yukhei's secret. Donghyuck shoves it away—he and Mark's situation is totally different.)

" _Donghyuuuck_ ," Donghyuck apparently has been standing there for too long—long enough for Mark to notice him. Mark purses his lips into a pout and his round eyes sparkle so much it renders Donghyuck speechless. "Hyuckie, why do you hate me?"

Donghyuck's heart hurts at the nickname and the question, a double fucking whammy. He leans down to get to Mark's eye level. "I don't hate you," far from it, in fact.

This upsets drunk Mark even more though. "Then _why?_ " 

It's two words but it's such a loaded question and unfortunately, Donghyuck doesn't have the answer. He lets himself reach out to pat Mark on the knee. "I'm sorry."

It's so fucking easy to get sucked into those eyes, those big, round brown orbs that hold the entire universe in them. So easy that Donghyuck doesn't realize anyone's joined him until there's a hand on his shoulder.

Donghyuck's reaction is delayed after being so caught up in Mark's eyes—and maybe that's for the best because Jaemin doesn't look like the same Jaemin Donghyuck wanted to punch ten minutes ago—his eyes are wide and glazed, looking around at everything but not really looking at anything at all.

"You need to go," Jaemin pushes Donghyuck's shoulder and Donghyuck would be annoyed if he wasn't so damn confused. "Everyone needs to leave, get away from here."

Donghyuck's conflicted, he doesn't want to listen but he also wants to know whatever the fuck is going on—he doesn't know Jaemin at all but the dude looks genuinely scared for a moment. Donghyuck wants to take the opportunity to punch him but all his super training comes back to him—Jaemin’s (probably) not a threat right now, but Donghyuck’s still going to make sure Jaemin’s hand isn’t going to make it’s way to Donghyuck’s nape (assuming that’s how he got into his head. If it’s just from eye contact then Donghyuck’s fucked already, so).

"Why should I listen to you?" Donghyuck challenges because he still very much hates this guy with every fiber of his being.

Jaemin's gaze finally focuses on Donghyuck, looking more like the Jaemin he's previously interacted with and the switch sends a shiver down his spine. "Just get out. Make sure Mark gets home safe."

Like he wasn't going to fucking do that in the first place? Donghyuck scoffs because he _has_ to and helps Mark to his feet, removing the red cup from his hands (amidst Mark's whining about it) and practically drags him out of the house when he sees others leaving too. He notices the Chenle guy kicking people out and Donghyuck is even more convinced that he's one of the supers with the Faceless now.

He doesn't have much time to dwell on it though, he has to concentrate on guiding Mark quickly without letting him trip over the both of them and also reign in the batshit pounding of his heart when Mark leans his full weight onto Donghyuck's side.

"I miss you," Mark mumbles into the shirt of Renjun's that Donghyuck's wearing. It takes every fiber of Donghyuck's being not to break down right then and there. He pulls Mark along with the slow and steady crowd leaving Jaemin's house until they part ways to go back to their own campus.

It's quiet and kind of peaceful. Donghyuck really didn't think this was how the night was going to end. First, he thought he'd be playing the Sims 4 until the wee hours of the night, then he thought either he'd end up dead or in jail when seeing Jaemin—he did not think he'd be walking home a slowly sobering Mark Lee from the party across town.

Donghyuck brings him right to Mark's dorm room door, helping him get out his keys and unlock it. Donghyuck stays near the entrance though, because Mark's sobered up enough to be not stupid and clumsy.

Mark holds onto Donghyuck's arm like he wants to pull him in though, but when Donghyuck doesn't budge, Mark slowly slides his hand down along the length of it (and the goosebumps ensue) and the tips of his fingers reach inside Donghyuck's sleeve.

Mark opens his mouth, about to say something, then frowns. Donghyuck feels the tickle of the pads of Mark's fingers dancing over the edges of the freshly healed skin on his forearm—he's too shocked at the sensation to pull away, instincts completely overridden. Mark pulls back Donghyuck's sleeve slightly and gasps when he sees the scars poke out—scars he knows weren't there before.

"What happened?" Mark asks. “I texted when Jeno said—but you didn’t reply. What happened?” Donghyuck is so, _so_ close to telling him, to spilling everything right then and there. He can't though, he can't.

"Goodnight, Mark," Donghyuck pulls his arm away. He sees a lump in one of the beds in Mark's room and confirms to himself that Jeno's there. Mark opens his mouth again but Donghyuck leaves before he fucks literally everything up.

He heads to his own dorm room. Unfortunately, it's not to go to bed like he so badly fucking wants to—it's to wake up Yukhei and tell him that they're going to SMT.

Donghyuck has no idea what the fuck is happening, but something's up and he might want to be a normal college boy sometimes but fuck you if you think he's gonna sit on his ass and not do something about it when he can.

If the world won't let him have Mark Lee then he's going to give Mark Lee the world. One he's going to be safe in.

  
Donghyuck didn't think that going to SMT to tell them about Jaemin and Chenle would land him in the hospital again but he should've figured, seeing as Jaemin's got his dream manipulation power and they don't know if he's gonna do what he did to Donghyuck again.

Donghyuck might fucking despise the dude, may want to beat him to a pulp but he also has the feeling Jaemin's not going to do it to him again. He still lets Taeyong monitor him in the meantime in exchange for a never-ending supply of apple juice boxes though, a fair trade-off.

Sicheng basically has to beg Taeyong to release Donghyuck at least so they can have a god damn briefing with everyone—Taeyong only agrees on one condition—that he can keep monitoring Donghyuck.

So that's how Donghyuck ends up with Sicheng pushing him in a wheelchair, Taeyong following after with a machine on wheels that Donghyuck's attached to.

Yangyang snorts when Donghyuck gets wheeled into the conference room that's filled with fellow supers and employees. Sicheng settles his chair beside Yukhei (who's frowning worriedly but Donghyuck assures him with a shake of his head) and hands him an extra juice box he has in his lap.

Hendery raises his hand, pouting at Sicheng. "I want a juice box."

"You should share with the rest of the class." Renjun teases and Donghyuck sticks his tongue out at him. Sicheng just ignores them all and sits down.

"This is why I hate these meetings." Donghyuck hears Yeri mutter under her breath before Ten claps his hands and brings everyone's attention to the front.

He's standing in front of the holo screen that displays Jaemin's name, photo, and power. Beside it is a picture of the Chenle guy, with a notable 'Sonic Scream' label underneath.

"So he _is_ Faceless then," Donghyuck murmurs to himself. Makes sense.

"Yes, well, it gets a little more... complicated from here. Or maybe it's simpler. Definitely messier." Ten winces while looking to the back of the conference room. It's only then that Donghyuck notices the looming presence of Johnny and Kun—he turns to observe them.

Johnny has his arms crossed over his chest, scowling. Kun looks absolutely livid even when his voice is quiet when he says, "I remember being told Chenle _died_."

Donghyuck's not sure what he had been expecting but it definitely wasn't that. He subconsciously sucks on the straw of his juice box harder with this new revelation when he turns back to look at Ten. The entire room waits for Ten's response.

Ten's sigh is heavy. "That's what everyone was told. All of us. Now I've been informed that he was stolen by a former employee when he was a baby."

"And no one thought _'oh this guy has an ear-shattering screaming power, maybe it's the baby we lost'?"_ Renjun asks. Donghyuck commends his bravery.

"It was too early to tell what his power would be," Johnny's the one who answers. "He was just a couple of months old."

"Orphan," Ten clarifies when he sees several eyebrows raise. "He was given to us by an orphanage—there was enough evidence to know that he would be super, we just didn't know what kind."

"Why didn't they change his name then if they stole him? Wouldn't that mean SMT could find him again? This smells like a plothole." Yangyang points out. Wow, Donghyuck thinks, everyone's brave for questioning this shit. His mind is just blank buzzing.

"We have fucking superpowers, Yangyang," Yeri points out and Donghyuck's head is reeling. "You can't have one without the other."

"Like peanut butter and bananas," Yukhei mumbles to himself.

"You can definitely have peanut butter without bananas—the fuck?"

"I don't think that matters anymore," Kun's voice is sharp and it cuts through everyone's murmurs to each other. "Must be some disgruntled employee if they steal a super child and start creating an army to go up against SMT."

If Donghyuck thought it was silent before then damn—this one was deafening, like, Donghyuck thinks his hearing might have just up and walked off? Is he deaf? Is no one breathing? He takes an experimental sip of his juice box and—oh, he can still hear. Now everyone's looking at him. He slowly places the juice box on his lap sheepishly. Yukhei leans over to pat his knee.

Ten sighs again, like he has the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. Maybe he does--Donghyuck realizes.

"Look, I know you guys know this. SMT has its faults like every company out there. There isn't just a good and bad side in the world, just different opinions on what someone thinks is the best for themselves or someone else. We aren't perfect. But the Faceless are actually hurting people that can't fight back—no one's died yet, but Sonic Sc— _Chenle_ —he's sent a lot of people to the hospital. We all saw what this Jaemin kid did to Donghyuck. We need to stop them and this is what I think is best for us and for the community."

"Whoa," Yukhei whispers in awe. "That was deep."

Donghyuck elbows him in the stomach when Irene, who'd been quiet most of the time, speaks up. "I think this is for the best too. We need to stop them."

"And what exactly is this definition of ' _stop'_?" Kun asks. "Some of these people in the Faceless, the supers, the nonsupers—they're just kids. We can't hurt them."

"They've already hurt others," Someone points out. Donghyuck's too distracted in his own head to really identify any voices right now.

"Two wrongs don't make a right."

"I don't think just talking to them is going to get them to stop. They have a vendetta against us."

"I think a fight is inevitable at this point."

Donghyuck's mind finally stills amongst all the fighting. He slowly raises his hand and waits until someone notices him. Hendery does—and he shuts the room up with a crackle of thunder from his fist.

"Hendery," Ten puts a hand on his own chest, clearly shocked. "Not inside, please."

"Hyuck has something to say," Hendery nods to Donghyuck and all eyes turn to him. 

Suddenly Donghyuck feels small. He lowers his hand and slowly crushes the empty juice box on his lap between his fingers. He looks at Renjun when he says, "What if they don't want to be doing what they're doing? What if they're being forced?"

Renjun closes his eyes in a way that makes Donghyuck think he wishes Donghyuck hadn't brought it up but—he had to.

No one really says anything, so Donghyuck continues. "When Jaemin kicked everyone out at his house party—he just seemed... scared. I don't know if any of the Faceless showed up there but I don't know—I just feel like they're not doing this because they really want to."

It's Yukhei's gaze that burns into him with the most intensity. "You're going to _defend_ that guy? After what he did to you?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I still hate that motherfucker," Donghyuck clarifies and he swears he sees a flash of a smile on Renjun's face before it's gone. "Like, I'd love to beat the shit out of him, really, I just think there's something more going on."

Donghyuck turns to Yukhei. "What would you do if someone threatened to hurt Jeno?"

"I'd beat their face in."

Donghyuck sighs. "Okay, what if there wasn't any other option to save him other than to do what they say?"

"Don't make something up to make us more sympathetic to them," Renjun says, though he doesn't look Donghyuck in the eye.

"It's just a suggestion. I think most of us would do something drastic if it meant not putting our loved ones in danger."

"Oh, like how pulling away from Mark and not telling him about yourself is supposed to protect him but clearly you're just making the both of you miserable and you're not even giving him the chance to decide what he wants?"

Donghyuck's mouth opens and closes like a damn fish because fuck, Renjun is right but he didn't have to call him out in front of everyone like that, jesus.

"Okay," Ten cuts in. "Clearly you two need to talk but for now—this briefing is dismissed. We'll discuss plans later when we have something more concrete—we're going to look into possibilities of motives, okay Hyuck? Hendery, Renjun, Yangyang—you have permission to stay at SMT if you don't want to go back to your school dorm campus since Jaemin and Chenle live in the area."

Everyone starts to disperse as the meeting is dismissed. Donghyuck tries getting up out of the wheelchair but he feels Taeyong's hands on his shoulders, forcing him back down so he hits Yukhei's stomach with his elbow to get his attention. "Wheel me out to Renjun."

(Detaching himself from the machine as Yukhei zips away with him in tow was implied and Donghyuck is _so_ glad Yukhei got that. Taeyong has stopped screaming from the conference room for now.)

"Well, you didn't have to give poor Taeyong a heart attack just to reach me." Renjun rolls his eyes when they catch up to him.

"Listen," Donghyuck finally stands up from the chair and points a finger in Renjun's face. "I need the key to your dorm room because we left my bag there with my laptop and I need my laptop to play Sims while I stay in my room and avoid someone because I'm not ready to face him yet."

Renjun raises a brow and Donghyuck pouts.

"Please? Let me wallow in self-pity for a little bit before I get my shit together. At least let this Faceless shit pass—I know you're right about what you said but, you should listen to your own advice, too."

Renjun tosses his dorm key to Donghyuck with a shake of his head. "I'm not pulling away because I'm afraid he'll get hurt—I know he'll get hurt. I'm not forgiving him for what he did to you."

Donghyuck's tired of people giving up their happiness for him. That's why he made sure Yukhei at least made up with Jeno. "I can hate my friend's boyfriend if it comes to that—you deserve to be happy too."

Renjun pushes him by the shoulders and Donghyuck's butt lands back into the wheelchair forcefully.

"Hey! Don't push the injured!"

"You should listen to your own damned advice then, stupid." Renjun snorts and walks off, beautiful silver hair glittering in the artificial lights of the hallway.

Donghyuck looks up from where he's sitting to see Yukhei staring down at him, eyes all wide and teary for some reason.

"You really think staying away from Mark will protect him?" 

Donghyuck sighs. "Well I've been trying to convince myself to but like damn—no one's gonna let me, huh?"

"No fucking way man. If I'm gonna be happy, you're gonna be happy. But also if we're gonna tell Jeno and Mark we have superpowers we need to coordinate or else shit's gonna go south even more."

"I never said I was going to tell him yet! Will no one let me wallow? I request at least a week of wallowing! Let me fucking wallow."

"Can you wallow in the library then? I don't want that sad energy around when Jeno and I—"

Donghyuck leaps out of the wheelchair and starts walking away from Yukhei's cackling. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHAT YOU AND JENO DO WHEN I'M NOT IN THE DORM!" 

He huffs to himself, though he's mostly kidding. He's happy Yukhei's happy, but he really doesn't want to know or see or hear what happens. 

Donghyuck really just meant to grab his laptop and go back home but—Renjun's dorm room is empty cause he and Hendery aren't there, Yukhei's probably got Jeno in their own dorm room... What's a couple hours lost just minding his own business here?

(Yes, he does forget the reason Renjun and Hendery aren't in their dorm but that comes into play in like, two seconds.)

Donghyuck's lounging in Renjun's bed with his shoes on (mini revenge) and playing the Sims 4 once more when there's a knock on the door (that rhymed!!)

Donghyuck pauses because the music from the game is LOUD (can you blame him? The Sims soundtrack slaps, okay?) and waits until the person leaves. They don't though—they knock again.

"Renjun?"

Chills go up Donghyuck's spine when he hears that stupid fucking voice—god, he fucking recognizes it even when it's wavering and unsure—which sounds so foreign. Jaemin never seemed like a dude who could ever sound like that.

"Renjun, I know you're in there—I heard the music."

And he can probably hear Donghyuck's breathing if he's even as a little bit as enhanced as Donghyuck is, goddamn. Donghyuck stays paused though because what the fuck else is he gonna do, he just wanted some damn PEACE.

Jaemin sighs on the other side of the door. "Look, Renjun, I—" he lowers his voice and Donghyuck internally panics because he's probably not meant to hear this and he came here to avoid one couple and now he's put himself in the middle of another romantic downfall aside from his own AND CAN HE JUST GET ONE FUCKING HOUR OF PEACE, PLEASE?!

"I know we can't ever go back to the way it was—I know that's impossible. I've done some—" Jaemin's voice breaks. "—bad shit, some real bad shit. Fucking dumb shit too. I'm not asking you to forgive me or anything, I just—I'm being selfish and I need you to know that I didn't know that you were involved in this at all. No idea." 

His speech is followed by almost silent curses on the other side of the door. Donghyuck actually feels... moved? Even though the speech isn't meant for him at all.

Against all better judgment, Donghyuck gets off Renjun's bed and heads to the door. 

Before he opens it, Jaemin continues.

"I think about you a lot, Renjun, still do. Remember that night we were studying for midterms, and you ended up on my lap and we—"

Donghyuck swings the door open because there's no fucking way he's going to let himself hear this fucking story without throwing up, god. At least it makes Jaemin shut up and the emotions that pass over Jaemin's face when he raises his head is hilarious in its own right, Donghyuck wishes he'd have thought to record it for his own blackmailing purposes.

Eventually, Jaemin's face sets into a murderous glare. "What the fuck? Where's Renjun?" He peers into the room and Donghyuck steps back, arm gestured out to show him that no one else is there.

"Staying somewhere else. I came here to pick up my bag and decided I wanted at least a couple hours of peace from these fucking romantics but, of course, shit never goes the way I want it to." Donghyuck explains.

Jaemin sighs, leaning his shoulder on the wall. "SMT's making them stay away, aren't they?"

That makes Donghyuck tense a little, defensive. "They gave them a _choice_. They _chose_ to stay away. I don't know what your big bad boss tells you—but we're not the people you think we are."

For some reason, Donghyuck feels better when Jaemin smirks. It's like, seeing him raw and vulnerable is so uncomfortable, ugh, he'd rather they just spit metaphorical venom at each other. 

"I could say the same thing to you about us."

Donghyuck holds the door open by his foot as he uses one hand to push up the sleeve on the other—revealing his forearm. "Wanna know how I got these scars?" He says, quite humourlessly. 

There's a slight shift in Jaemin's expression when he sees his own damage on Donghyuck's skin. It's not obvious, but Donghyuck's already spent enough time glaring at him to notice it. "We've got a guy with healing powers who can get rid of that for you."

Donghyuck sighs, pushing his sleeve back down and placing his hands onto his hips. "Are you trying to persuade me onto the dark side, bro?"

Jaemin shrugs. "Worth a shot, bro."

They stare at each other for a little bit. Donghyuck's not really sure what to say. Yeah, he hates him but he also... he feels bad? It was a lot easier to hate Jaemin and the Faceless when there weren't names or faces—or even voices to hear and talk to. Then he thinks of both Renjun and Hendery having things for people on the 'other side' and it's like—why are they all even fighting? Donghyuck and Jaemin could be trying to kill each other right now but they aren't, that's what makes this so damn complicated.

Eventually, Jaemin's shoulders sag. "I'm assuming you realize we're all going to have to fight each other again, right?"

Donghyuck nods. "Yup."

"And you do realize if you hurt any of my friends—I'm going to make sure you never sleep a peaceful night in your life ever again?"

"Yuuup."

"Okay, good. That goes for Mark too by the way." Jaemin moves to leave but Donghyuck stops him.

"That's not fair—I'm hurting to him to protect him!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, which, by the way, it won't," Jaemin smirks and it sends those damned chills down Donghyuck's spine again. God, he really fucking hates this pink-haired bitch. WILL NO ONE LET HIM WALLOW?

Donghyuck watches Jaemin leave with a grimace on his face, then packs his stuff up from Renjun's room and leaves this campus to get to his own. He's not going to give up on his search for peace any time soon.

"So, are you guys like, dating, then?" Donghyuck asks while sitting across from Yukhei and Jeno in their old library spot on the couches. He asks because he just really wants to make them uncomfortable—they're tangled up together on the couch and Donghyuck hasn't been looking but he hears when they exchanged those stupid, gross kisses that they giggle at. It's fucking cute too, god. He briefly considers going down to a lower floor to join Hendery and Renjun instead, since they're using this campus' library instead of their own.

(Again, Donghyuck's happy Yukhei's happy—HE'S JUST— _YOU KNOW_ —IT'S PART OF THE WALLOWING PROCESS!! HE NEEDS TO HATE COUPLES AND THEIR ROMANCE IN ORDER TO GET OVER HIS LACK OF ONE / WISHES FOR ONE WITH A CERTAIN SOMEONE, RIGHT?? THAT'S HOW THIS WORKS, ISN'T IT?? Help.)

"Uhm, well," Yukhei panics and looks to Jeno and okay, Donghyuck feels bad. A little bit.

"I mean, we go on dates," Jeno points out. He has his head on Yukhei's chest, clearly comfortable. "We kiss—a lot. That's dating!"

Yukhei lets out a soft, "Oh fuck," because of course, he probably still can't believe he's dating Jeno.

Jeno lifts his head up to look at Yukhei with those adorable moon crescent eyes. "Unless you want to be my boyfriend?"

Donghyuck prays he doesn't vomit in his mouth when he sees Yukhei's eyes turn into hearts. He effectively tunes himself out of the conversation, regretting ever bringing the topic up. How the fuck did he end up in the library with them and not by himself again? Right, they were trying to study. They weren't getting much done, obviously, and Donghyuck always did a lot better on studying his history class when he was with Mark.

Because Donghyuck will never know a day of peace in his life—that's exactly who the world summons.

"Hey,"

Donghyuck's head shoots up and he sees Mark standing there, two awkward hands holding the straps of his backpack—he's so fucking _cute_.

"Hey," Jeno replies when all Donghyuck does is stare. He has no idea if Mark remembers the night of the party at all—half of him wishes he doesn't.

Mark's still looking at Donghyuck when he asks, "Can I sit here?"

Donghyuck blinks before nodding, not trusting his own voice. It'll probably squeak. He shuffles over to give Mark enough space between the two of them on the same couch. It's just like how it always was—before shit got complicated, before Donghyuck realized he could get hurt or could get the people around him hurt.

Except he and Mark have this huge fucking gap between them and Jeno and Yukhei are obnoxiously sucking face. Not exactly the same, but almost.

"I uh, noticed you've been sitting in the back in class," Mark says to Donghyuck eventually.

Donghyuck just nods because he can't say it's because he gets to class late on purpose so Mark doesn't sit beside him—or the fact that that doesn't matter anyway because he sees Mark still saving the seat beside him with his bag every goddamn time.

Everything would be so much easier if Mark hated Donghyuck. That's the part that kills him to realize—that Mark likes him so much to put himself through this.

"Please, can we talk, Hyuck?" Mark whispers and it's so desperate-sounding Donghyuck has to close his eyes and pretend he's okay to hear Mark like this even though it hurts Donghyuck so much.

Donghyuck still doesn't know if he's ready to talk—hasn't made any decisions. He hasn't wallowed for enough yet! Does he want a chance with Mark, despite the risks? Yukhei seems happy doing it... maybe... maybe Donghyuck can be too.

Either way, Donghyuck doesn't get to decide in that moment because one of the library bookshelves explodes.

Yeah, like just— _boom_.

Then it happens again, and again, and again, milliseconds apart from each other. There's no time to think—only time to shield his friends from the debris of wood and half-burned books shooting out from the impact.

When the explosions finally stop after a solid minute, Donghyuck opens his eyes and finds himself on top of Mark, forearms on either side of his head on the ground with the orange protective bubble around them and extending to Jeno and Yukhei on the other couch.

Guess the cat's out of the bag now, huh.

Mark's eyes are wide and sparkling, reflecting the light of the shield in them when he looks up at Donghyuck. 

"Hyuck...?" it comes out as a breathless whisper.

Donghyuck only pants because oh god—he just showed his powers in public, without his suit—without his fucking mask—and now Mark _knows_.

Renjun and Hendery are there in seconds from the lower floors, Yangyang just a moment after—probably running all the way from SMT. It gives Donghyuck a distraction as he brings in his shield and gets up off of Mark.

"What the fuck was that?" Renjun asks and Donghyuck shrugs, leaning down to help Mark up. At least he's a gentleman. Hopefully, Mark can't feel that Donghyuck's hands are shaking.

Yukhei has a bewildered Jeno in a protective cocoon in his arms. "I hear them coming, the Faceless."

Donghyuck ignores Mark's grip on his sleeve. "How many?"

"All of them. All of the supers."

Black smoke signals their entrance, it travels across the floor and licks at their feet.

"Looks like Hendery's about to have a dramatic reunion," Renjun cocks a brow in his partner's direction.

"Oh shut up, like you're not in the same boat!"

Donghyuck turns to Mark, holding onto his hand tightly, ignoring his own blush because this is _not_ the fucking moment. "Mark, you and Jeno have to get out of here, okay? Get as far away from campus as you can and don't come back."

"Donghyuck—" Mark's eyes are still those wide orbs but Donghyuck pushes him towards Yukhei, who takes Jeno over one shoulder and Mark over the other and runs them out of the building. It only takes him a moment to run back, empty-handed.

"Can't wait to unpack that when this is over," Yukhei sighs and Donghyuck wholeheartedly agrees.

"And we're not allowed to hurt them, right?" Yangyang asks and it's a little bit concerning that he sounds disappointed.

"A few bruises won't hurt," Donghyuck shrugs. It's the least they can take when they just made him expose his secret to someone when he wasn't ready to yet.

Yangyang smiles and Hendery cracks his knuckles, thunder rumbling along with it. Renjun touches Yangyang's shoulder, shivers, then looks to the rest of them. "I'm going to run all the students out of this building if they're not out yet, I'll be back."

Renjun zooms off with Yangyang's power and he's back before the first window is broken by some long dude coming in feet first. Hendery's Xiaojun guy appears from the smoke and five other supers crash in too, which isn't fair because they're slightly outnumbered now.

"If you think Screamer is gonna scream—come find me," Donghyuck's still not sure his shields will protect them from the sound completely—but that doesn't mean he's not gonna try. His friends nod and they launch themselves towards the Faceless.

(They're wearing their hoods but their faces are shown. Donghyuck would wonder why but it's kind of hard when he's getting punches thrown at him and he's trying to shield himself and Yukhei.)

Donghyuck feels a hand on his shoulder and sees Renjun taking his power as his own. He nods to Donghyuck before heading towards his own superpartner, shielding Hendery when he needs it.

The strong one—the one Donghyuck remembers facing off with Johnny that night a few weeks ago—he comes after Donghyuck and Yukhei immediately. Donghyuck can't shield much when fists are being thrown on both sides, so he leaps to the side and pushes away anyone who tries to double team onto Yukhei.

Donghyuck spots Chenle then—Screamer—Sonic Scream— _whatever_ —he spots him and decides to fucking go for it. He's the only one Donghyuck knows can take out all of them at once, so he sends a pulsating shield towards him to knock him off his feet.

It works and Donghyuck takes a moment to smile to himself, cause you gotta take pride in some of these things! Except apparently, strong guy did not like what Donghyuck just did, because he abandons his fight against Yukhei and launches himself at Donghyuck—who doesn't have time to defend himself.

Donghyuck gets smashed against the wall of the library, a hand around his throat, constricting his air flow. Strong guy looks so, _so_ fucking mad—but Yukhei coming in from behind looks even more furious. He rips the guy away and Donghyuck falls to the ground, coughing, trying to regain his breath.

As if shit couldn't get any worse—Chenle's back up on his feet. He opens his mouth and Donghyuck's already trying to scramble up (fuck, he thinks something is bleeding already) and gearing up his shields.

"Donghyuck!"

Donghyuck's heart drops when he hears Mark's voice at such proximity. He turns to see both Mark and Jeno back on the floor of the library, eyes wide at the destruction in front of them that's already happened in mere minutes.

Instead of responding and calling Mark an idiot like he wants to ("You're supposed to be the smart one!" he wants to yell, "Fucking get out!") Donghyuck blasts his shields towards Chenle to knock him down again before he can release his scream and possibly gravely injure the normal humans now back on this floor.

"Yangyang!" Donghyuck yells. "Get them out of here!"

"I'm a little busy!" Yangyang screams back.

Donghyuck curses under his breath because now they've just made a scene and both Chenle, strong guy and another super have noticed—the girl makes another bookshelf explode and the books go flying at Yukhei, hitting him straight in the head while strong guy uses the opportunity to run towards Mark and Jeno (who is also now screaming Yukhei's name. God, why are the smart ones dumb too?)

With no way to get in front of Mark and Jeno before strong guy does—Donghyuck thinks fast. He unleashes his shield and creates an orb around himself and strong guy—creating a barrier between him and Mark and Jeno that he can't cross.

Donghyuck pulls the shield in, forcefully dragging strong guy closer to him and away from Mark and Jeno—which is all he's thinking about—making sure they're safe. He doesn't think about how easily strong guy can crush him—and with Yukhei being attacked by the girl pelting exploding books at him and how Donghyuck doesn't have enough time to remove the shield around them to just himself—he's not prepared for the hit.

Something's broken in his arm—he knows it. Donghyuck falls to his knees with a choked gasp because it fucking _hurts_. He hears Mark scream his name again when strong guy stands above him, ready to strike again.

"Jisung, stop." Jaemin appears in front of Donghyuck, a hand up in front of strong guy, stopping him. In this moment, maybe Donghyuck should feel grateful but instead, he does what he's been wanting to do since he had that fucking nightmare and almost tore himself to shreds—he gets up and punches Jaemin in the jaw—with extra force from his pulsating shield around his fist.

Strong guy—Jisung—grabs Donghyuck again by the neck and Donghyuck thinks _hmm, maybe this is it, the end_. At least he got to punch Jaemin. At least Mark knows who he is now. Too bad they couldn't ever be together.

(He really does start doing this too soon but Donghyuck's dramatic, as you can tell.)

Donghyuck's life doesn't end right then and there like he expects it to—instead, a blood-curdling scream is heard and Jisung drops Donghyuck to the ground. Actually, everyone drops to the ground, covering their ears because they feel like they're bleeding out and Donghyuck feels real close to passing the fuck out.

Then he realizes that Chenle's screaming for them to stop.

Everyone looks to him—like their fighting is frozen in time.

Chenle takes a deep breath and Donghyuck almost thinks he's gonna rip them a new one—except instead, quite calmly, he says, "I don't want to fight."

Beside Donghyuck, Jisung stands up. "Chenle--"

"I don't want to fight—I've never wanted to fight. I hate this, I don't want to do this."

Jaemin groans as he stands up, putting his hands out as an almost surrender. "I don't want to do this either—we don't have to do this to each other."

"Man, wish you would've said that before you exploded our library or before you almost killed me in my sleep, but it's fine I guess," Donghyuck gets up on wobbly knees. God, it's gonna take him so fucking long to heal. Taeyong's gonna have a fucking field day with him.

"We're just doing what we have to to survive," Jaemin says, "I'm sure you'd do the same."

"We're trying to protect people," It's Renjun who speaks and Jaemin's eyes go straight to him. "You're just hurting them."

"That's not true!" Chenle yells, thankfully, not in sonic scream form. "Jaemin's protecting me! Us! They'll hurt us if we don't do what they say."

Donghyuck catches Yukhei looking towards him because fuck yeah he was right! They were totally forced into hurting people because someone in the Faceless was threatening them! Woohoo!

"Leave the Faceless then—join SMT," Donghyuck suggests. As much as he would hate seeing Jaemin around, it's a solution.

"Leave one company who says they'll protect you for another while they both tell you what to do? I don't think so," Jaemin scoffs. He turns back to Renjun when he mutters, "Maybe in another lifetime."

"You have this lifetime, idiot," Donghyuck's the one who grimaces because this shit's cheesy as fuck bro.

"Rich coming from you!" Jaemin sneers back. 

"This isn't about me!"

"It's a lot about you! See how much Mark fucking cares about you so much to come back into a clearly dangerous situation to see if you're okay? No matter how much you pull yourself away he will always be in danger because he'll put himself in it for you—so you might as well take advantage and just enjoy being with him!"

"Uh," Donghyuck hears Mark whisper. "They know I'm right here, right?"

"Shut up," Jeno whispers back. "This is amazing."

"What is _happening_ right now?" Jisung asks and for some reason, he looks at Donghyuck. Probably because he's the closest to him.

"People got feelings, man. Everyone just wants to make out."

Jisung scrunches his nose up and it's kind of cute even for someone who was just trying to kill him. "Ew."

"Okay wait, let me get this straight," Yangyang pipes up. "We don't want to fight, some of us hate each other, some of us like each other, some of us probably want to make out with someone from the other side—yeah, I'm looking at you Hendery—you guys don't want to go back to the Faceless but you don't want to join SMT—so what the fuck are we going to do?"

The supers all stare at each other, clearly at a loss. What do they do?

"Uhm," Mark's voice turns all of their attention onto him. Donghyuck's heart sings when they make eye contact. "I have an idea."

Donghyuck sighs, taking in the sight of Mark with patches of dirt on his clothes and face, knowing that he’s okay and he’s somehow managed to look cute. "God, I'm so fucking in love with you."

He'd meant to say it in his head.

  
"So you're telling me that I'm supposed to believe you when you say all the supers with the Faceless died in the building when it collapsed?"

All five of them nod their heads when Sicheng looks deep into their eyes. 

From his peripheral, Donghyuck can see Kun chuckling and Johnny is trying to hide his own grin. Nobody believes them, but there's not much to do about it when it's the truth they're swearing by.

“And you didn’t think to ask what, how or why the Faceless were threatening them to do their bidding so we could understand their motives and goals better?”

Nobody says anything. None of them thought of that. Whoops.

Sicheng sighs and shakes his head. "Well, I'm glad none of you are dead."

"That's so insensitive to the people who are actually dead, Sicheng," Renjun tsks playfully and Sicheng scowls at him.

"I almost died, again," Donghyuck points out, his arm in a cast. It'll heal faster than a normal human's but it still sucks.

"And that doesn't surprise me," Sicheng looks both tired and a little teeny bit amused. At least Donghyuck likes to think so. "We're gonna get everyone's shit sorted out. We might have to look into transferring all of you into different colleges now since your identities might have been compromised but we'll think about it another day. Go and relax or whatever the fuck it is you do—just don't get into trouble, please. Again."

"No promises!" Yangyang's laughter rings out as the boys leave the conference room. Donghyuck and Yukhei high five and Renjun nudges Donghyuck's shoulder with a smile.

Donghyuck totally knows Renjun knows where Jaemin and the others are hiding out. Respectfully, he doesn't ask so he can't tell anyone but also because he doesn't ever want to see Jaemin again. He likes him better metaphorically dead, anyway.

Donghyuck thinks that SMT should've given them their own apartment a long time ago—that eliminates all the hassle of sneaking around their dorm when trying to go out and do super things at night and it's just nice to have your own space, you know? And no fucking RA's having to check up on you. They had to pull out of school for now—everyone did since the library got destroyed (whoops) and they're still not sure how badly their identities were compromised—so neither of them is too sure about their college future for now.

Donghyuck's fine with that—at least he gets a fucking break.

"You know," Yukhei says one afternoon while making tea. (Don't ask, Jeno got him into some herbal shit and Kun got really excited about it too—Donghyuck doesn't question it.) "It just suddenly occurred to me that we did all that badass fighting at the library without having a soundtrack playing in the background."

Donghyuck pauses from scrolling through his phone on their living room couch. "Huh. I didn't even realize."

Yukhei pouts. "Do you think we've outgrown it?"

"Of course not," Donghyuck clicks his tongue. "Just because we have an apartment we don't pay for doesn't mean we're responsible adults, Yukhei," Donghyuck pauses again, thinking. "Holding Out for a Hero would've been great for that fight though."

"Please tell me you're thinking of the Shrek version."

"That's the original. There's no other version, Yukhei," Donghyuck says as he presses the play button on the Youtube video because Spotify is a damn coward for not having the song on it. Someone should sue them.

An epic dance party of the ages ensues, with Donghyuck and Yukhei singing, dancing, and recreating moments from their fight in the library. It's fun, but it also makes Donghyuck think of Mark and he hasn't seen Mark in a few weeks—since they all left the dorms. They've texted on and off but they haven't really... talked about it. At all.

Donghyuck's almost asked Jeno about him when he comes over to fondle Yukhei but then Donghyuck remembers when Yukhei used to ask him to do that when he would talk to Mark so he decided to just not say anything (and put his noise-canceling headphones on).

Of course, as a believer in receiving the same energy you put into the world (as in, _thinking-about-Mark-Lee_ energy), there's a knock at their apartment door that they almost don't hear because the music is so loud but eventually—Donghyuck lowers the volume and goes to answer.

Mark Lee stands on the other side of the door (did you expect anyone else?), round reading glasses perched on his nose, his soft mop of black hair looking softer than ever in his fucking quarter-zip sweater and Donghyuck just wants to melt at the sight of him.

Instead, he says, "How did you find out where I live?" Instead of a fucking greeting like a normal person.

Mark blinks at him before he laughs. (OH HOW DONGHYUCK HAS MISSED THAT BEAUTIFUL MELODY!) "Jeno's my best friend, remember?"

Oh, right. Jeno who is Yukhei's boyfriend. Jeno who's here all the time. That Jeno.

"Also, Renjun told me. Some guy named Hendery told me too? A lot of people told me. Even Jaemin—"

Donghyuck holds his hand up in front of Mark's face. "We do not speak that name in this household."

Mark's having trouble trying to contain his smile. "Can we talk?" 

"I'll go for a walk!" Yukhei chirps and Mark makes room for him in the entrance for him to slip out the door, so now Donghyuck is left in his own apartment with Mark in front of him.

Donghyuck has literally almost died so many times in the past months but why is this so scary?

"Nice place," Mark says, looking around as he makes himself as comfortable as he can possibly be with this hella awkward aura surrounding the two of them.

"Yeah, SMT put us here since we can't live in the dorms anymore," Donghyuck shrugs.

"Yeah, uhm," Mark swallows and sucks his bottom lip in between his teeth. He takes a step closer to Donghyuck. "I don't know how to go about this, but,"

Donghyuck wearily watches Mark get closer. He still feels like he's losing years off his life even as you read this.

"Maybe your super senses are tingling or something and you know what I'm about to do?"

No, Donghyuck has no fucking clue, but it's cute that that's what Mark thinks. "That's not how it works—"

"Well, there's not a lot of shit to study on this! Trust me, I've tried!"

Oh that's so fucking—that's so fucking _cute._ Mark's been researching? CUTE! Mark continues before Donghyuck can even attempt to say anything (not that he'd be successful if he did).

"Anyways I realized the best person to learn all this from would be you and I'm just—I really want to kiss you if you'll let me."

Donghyuck short circuits.

"Uh, Hyuck?" Mark waves a hand in front of his face.

"Yes? Yeah—Yeah, kiss me, please, oh god—"

Mark leans in and when their lips touch, fireworks light up into the sky (not literally) and the world stops (it doesn't), time freezes (it keeps going) and Donghyuck doesn't want to do anything else for the rest of his life except kiss Mark (this one's true).

Donghyuck's arms wrap around Mark's shoulders and his fingers curl up into his hair (DONGHYUCK WAS RIGHT IT'S SO SOFT!!!! #DONGHYUCKTHIRDWIN)

(The first win is being right about Jaemin and his crew, the second win is kissing Mark).

They kiss again and again and again until they're both smiling and are just trying not to clack their teeth together.

"We've got," Mark says, breathless when they both finally pull away, holding Donghyuck by his waist. "A lot of catching up to do with where Jeno and Yukhei are."

Donghyuck's heart is taken out of his chest, used as a baseball and is hit for a fucking home run.

"Where should we start?" Donghyuck replies, equally as out of breath.

Mark unwraps one of Donghyuck's arms from around his shoulder and presses the palm of his hand with a finger, where the shields come out from. "You wanna tell me your origin story?"

"Can we cuddle while I tell it?"

Mark smiles, a dash of pink on his cheeks. "Of course."

"Awesome, hold up, I printed out my monologue and put it somewhere, one sec," Donghyuck detaches himself for Mark and scurries into his room. Where the fuck did he put that monologue manuscript he wrote up?!

(He had started forgetting his original monologue so, this was his solution. He's already forgotten that a lot of it is him saying how much he misses Mark—but he'll see that once he reads it.)

"A... monologue?" He hears Mark question while following after him. "How many... pages?"

"Forty-two!"

" _Forty_ —?! Donghyuck—Hyuck— _Hyuckie_ —"

Donghyuck freezes at the nickname because it does something to his damn body. Mark runs a hand up Donghyuck's back and it sends involuntary shivers down his spine. 

"I found it," Donghyuck whispers, pulling out the forty-two page monologue from one of his drawers.

Mark smiles, even when looking at the monstrous thing. "How about for every sentence you read, I get to kiss you?"

Donghyuck swallows, holding the stack of papers to his chest. "I might not survive."

Mark chuckles, coming in closer and Donghyuck thinks he really did die in the fight in the library because now he's in fucking heaven. "I'm willing to take that chance."

"Hot," Donghyuck whispers over Mark's lips before kissing him (CAUSE HE CAN DO THAT NOW!!).

Mark laughs and they get married and drive towards the sun in the sky in a red convertible while singing happy songs and life is good and perfect.

(This isn't how it goes—Donghyuck just watched Grease and it's on his mind—but it does end up pretty close to fucking perfect.)

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be equally focused on both markhyuck and nocas but markhyuck really stole the show..i liked writing from hyuck's pov so much so.. whoops..


End file.
